iCarly's Father
by Snapplelinz
Summary: In the aftermath of Adam and WebiCon, Freddie believes he's back to square one in his hopes to get back with Carly. However, a surprise visitor to the Shays may be Freddie's best ally or worst enemy on that quest. A story by OneHorseShay.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note (OneHorseShay): Takes place two months after iStart a Fanwar, but before Victorious Crossover; does not take iPity Nevel or unnamed episode into account.  
Special Guest Appearance by Joe Flanigan as Colonel Steven Shay. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.  
**

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Chapter 1  
Early September 2011

Colonel Steven Shay let out a tired breath as he entered the Bushwell Plaza lobby carrying his backpack and oversized duffle bag slung over his right shoulder. He brushed out some of his damped hair from the slight drizzle he walked through from the taxi to the lobby entrance. He was glad he guessed right about the weather and decided to wear his fatigues instead of his Class A Uniform.

The lobby was empty except for the sleeping doorman. He just shook his head and made his way to the stairs, but his combat boots squeaked loudly on the polished floor.

"Hey I just mopped!" Lewbert screeched out before the poorly dressed doorman completely lifted his head off of his desk.

Shay sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He dropped his hand from his face and directed a cold stared at the disgusting little man for a moment. "Mr. Lewbert, I have spent the last eleven hours in the air and I am not in the mood or inclination to deal with your nonsense. If you would kindly shut your mouth about your floor, I would appreciate it."

Lewbert chuckled nervously and nodded his head. "Yes, sir."

Shay approached the front desk and stared down the bumbling man. "I'm Colonel Shay; I rent Apartment Eight-C. Do you know if my children are home?"

"I can't keep—"

"It was a yes or no question. You either know or don't know," Shay interrupted in the stern voice he usually reserved to speak to junior officers when on the rare occasion they would slack off. "And don't give me the excuse you do not know who my children are. I am quite well aware that you know my children."

Lewbert cleared his throat and answered meekly, "I don't know."

Shay nearly barked his question at the doorman, "I don't know what?"

"Sir?"

"That's better and you remember to continue to show me that courtesy. I don't pay the outrageous rent so that a doorman can mouth off to me. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm heading up to my apartment. You will not buzz up to see if my children are home; is that clear?"

All Lewbert could do was nod his head in affirmation.

Shay turned away from the desk and approached the bottom step of the stairs. "Mr. Lewbert? You throw falafel balls or anything else at my daughter again and Marta is going to be the least of your worries."

Shay then heard an audible swallowing sound behind him. As Shay started up the stairs, the Colonel allowed himself a smirk. "It is fun Messin' with Lewbert."

Walking up to the eight floors was not an ideal method to reach the apartment, but it did allow for the element of surprise he was hoping to achieve. He knocked three times on the apartment door and heard shouting on the other side of the door. Shay grew concern for a moment and wondered if he should retrieve his sidearm out of his backpack until the door opened to reveal a brunette teenage girl looking over her shoulder into the apartment.

He watched as Carly shouted over her shoulder, "Fine, I got it!" She then turned her head forward to see him standing at the door. She tried speaking, but just mouthed the words she was trying to speak.

He smiled at the brunette and replied with a big grin, "Hi, my little Carlotta."

"Dad? Dad?" she whispered at first then shouted. She grabbed him and pulled him into a hug around his waist. He dropped the duffle bag and hugged her back even lifting her off the floor.

"Missed you too, little one," he whispered then sat her back on her feet. "I assume your brother's home from the shouting?"

Carly stepped away from his grasp and nodded. She turned and shouted back into the apartment, "Spencer!"

"What? Who's at the door?" Spencer asked as Shay noticed that his son was tightening a bolt on some monstrosity made up of scrap metal.

"What is that?" the Colonel asked as he dropped he backpack into the black chair near the door. Carly pulled the duffle bag completely inside of the apartment and shut the door behind them.

"Dad?" Spencer asked as he turned around on the stepladder then slipped and fell to the floor.

Shay whence at the sight for a moment as the tall lanky twenty-something was pulling himself back to his feet and jumped upped.

"Dad?"

"Glad to see you still bounce back," Shay commented with a chuckle. "Sometimes we wondered if you actually had bones to brake." He thought for a moment then commented, "It did make it easier to teach you how to ride a bike."

Spencer pulled his dad in a hug.

"How's my boy doing?" Shay asked him as he patted his son on the back.

Spencer pulled back and held on to each of Shay's shoulders. "Great! I'm doing great."

"I'm glad to hear that." Shay then picked at the front of Spencer's hair. "Why did you cut your hair?"

Spencer ran a hand through his hair and chuckled nervously. "Just wanted a change."

"He needed a haircut," Carly commented.

Shay raised an eyebrow as he looked at his daughter. "Why? I used to have long hair as a teenager."

"He's not a teenager."

"So, you can have long hair as an adult. Besides, his hair looked good; all long and voluminous."

Spencer threw his arms out to the side and his hand out. "That's what I said."

Shay chuckled at his son's overdramatic antics. "So what was the real reason for the haircut?"

"It was for my birthday."

"It was part of my way to try and make her sixteenth birthday the best birthday she ever had."

Shay nodded then glanced at Carly. "That goat is still bugging you?"

"Don't talk about what the goat did!" Carly shouted and threw out a hand in a chopping motion.

Shay shrugged and grinned. "There's no way Spencer could have know what the goat was going to do that! Besides, it's been two years let it go."

Carly took a breath to calm her nerves. "Never mind about the goat, what are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy you're here, because I'm happy you're here it's just-"

He smiled back at his daughter as he replied, "You're rambling sweetie. My joint tour just ended and I got extended leave and I wanted to come home to see my kids."

"Why didn't you call?" Carly asked in an excited tone, but a hint of annoyance under it.

His smile turned into a grin. "I wanted to surprise the both of you and you look surprise to see me."

"So how long are you going to stay?"

"I'm not sure exactly how long, but at least a few weeks, so I'm just not going to just up and go one day. Well, unless World War Three breaks out. I'm going to weigh some career options and opportunities that may be heading my way. I just hope you two can put up with me for that long."

Carly hugged him again. "I think we can do that."

"Thanks cupcake."

The Colonel looked back to Spencer. "So Spence, I heard you battled the great Aspartamay at Webicon this year."

"Yeah," he answered slowly.

"Was it an epic battle as the youngsters would say?"

"Yes," Spencer replied apparently unsure where his father's line of questioning was going.

"Did you win?"

"Well—"

"I won," Carly answered. "I took his silly rock from around his neck and he fell down. Well, after I bit his thumb."

Shay laughed and patted Carly's shoulder with a kiss on top of her head. "That's my girl."

Shay turned his attention back to the ten-foot pieced together metal sculpture. "Still keeping up with your art hobby between law classes I see," Shay commented with a smile.

Spencer shifted his eyes back and forth between Carly and his father, "Yeah, my hobby—between law classes. It's just something I'm doing in my spare time."

Shay wouldn't take that grin off of his face as he asked, "Between classes?"

"Right," Spencer chuckled nervously, "between classes."

Shay's grin subsided to a mere smile and nod. "I think you need to paint it with colors from a RYB color wheel when you're done with it. You can make it all cheerful. Unless it's a tree… is it a tree?"

Carly looked at Shay with a confused expression.

"I remember some of your mom's artist jargon," he replied to her unasked question.

Spencer looked at the sculpture then back at his father. "I don't know if it's a tree yet."

Colonel Shay walked past Spencer to take a closer look at the sculpture. "Well, just do what your mom use to do: just keep going until you know you're done. But if you make it so it plugs up, let me double check your electrical wiring. I don't need you to burn the place down."

He could almost feel his children staring into his back. Without looking back he commented, "You stink at electrical wiring; it's not a secret, it has never been a secret. We all know you have latent pyrokinesis even on nonflammable material."

He then turned back to look at them. The look of uneasiness on Spencer's face and Carly's sympathy directed at her brother was not lost on him. He tried to speak in a cheerful tone, "I am eager to see how your new room turned out, but I need to catch a few hours of sleep. It's now yesterday for me, so could you wake me for dinner?"

"Sure," Spencer replied nervous and Shay noticed.

Shay gave Spencer a soft, friendly punch to the side of the arm. "Spencer, it's alright if you want to make it electrical. We can knock that out with no problems when you're done with the rest of it. I still remember what I learned from my electrical engineering courses from college. We can go by an electrical store and pick heavy duty wiring, resisters, that sort of thing. Worst thing that'll happen is that nasty smell when resisters burn out if it draws too much voltage and I know you have to have some fans to take care of that. Just let me know; it'll be fun. Unless you don't think it's not cool to sculpture with your old man."

Spencer's nervous disposition turned into a cheerful one. "No, that'll be great dad."

He looked to Carly and asked, "I'm sure your Ex knows the best places to pick up what Spencer would need right?"

Carly knotted her eyebrows as she looked at Shay. "My ex?"

"Freddie? The kid that lives across the hall, Marissa's son, you know your tech producer on the show."

"Oh, right… my ex…"

It was Shay's turn to look concern. "Is he still your ex or did you two get back together?"

Carly shook her head. "No we're not together."

"Oh, you just seemed hesitant there. Is something wrong? Because I thought you two were on good terms; that's how you can still do the webshow together. Or are you two just faking it for the camera?"

"Yes, no, I mean we're not faking anything. We're good, terms that is…. We're on good terms. We're on the best of terms. He's one of my best friends."

Shay nodded. "I'm glad to hear it worked out for you two. I mean you were able to stay friends. I know breakups can be rough and a lot of hurts feelings all around."

"We…" she started but just left her sentence hanging.

It looked to Shay that his daughter's mind was drifting to someplace else for a moment.

"…it was a mutual decision," she finally finished.

"Mutual?" Shay asked with a slight nod of his head, but in a tone that left doubts about how much he believed her.

Carly nodded at the statement.

"I remember your email from then. You'll still have to explain the foreign bacon reference to me, but in the mean time I really do need that few hours of shuteye. I'll see you in a while." He kissed Carly's forehead and slapped the side of Spencer's arm before he went to retrieve his duffle bag and head towards the stairs.

He stopped for a moment when he heard a shout for down the stairs. "We have iCarly tonight!"

"I know, just wake me up so I don't miss it!" he shouted back as he reached the top of the stairs.

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**Author's Note (Snapplelinz): Some of you might remember that I said that I was going to post OneHorseShay's fic on my FF profile a few weeks ago. That was his author's notes above, so I won't supply very long-winded A/N's for his story. I also won't unfortunately do my usual tradition of supplying feedback by replying to reviews since I didn't write this and therefore won't know what went in on OneHorseShay's head :P I'm sure OHS will follow the reviews and I can tell him if any of you have questions. I hate to spoil, but I absolutely love this story and I hope you all will love it just as much as me :D Have a great weekend, cheers!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Just because you're all such awesome people, I'm posting two chapters instead of one this week for this story. And it's ok for me to break the tradition for 2 reasons: 1) it ain't my story and 2) there's plenty more where this came from. So I'll most likely post 2 chapters every Friday for this story because there's a sequel coming up right after this. Now none of you will miss me so much while I'm gone ;D **

******Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**  


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Chapter 2

Shay's eyes opened up with a snap from the commotion he heard coming from the first floor of the apartment. He turned his head and looked at the digital clock displaying 6:43 pm. He sat up and threw the sheet off his legs and swung them so his feet touched the wooden floor. "Time to get up," he muttered to himself as he ran a hand down his mouth and chin to stifle a yawn.

The forty-eight year old full bird Colonel made his way down the stairs to the incessant noise on the first floor. When he reached midway to the bottom of the stairs he saw brown haired teenage boy and a dirty blond teenage girl yelling at each other with Carly standing off to the side shaking her head.

"What is going on down here?" he asked in a raised voice.

His voice caught the attention of the teens and they both looked up at him wide eyed in surprise.

With a smirk, he looked at the dirty blond standing at the base of the stairs. He took a few steps to reach the floor. "Samantha? Melanie?"

Sam eyed him with a glare that indicated to him her annoyance at possibly being mistaken for her sister.

He then grinned, "I'd know that glare anywhere. Samantha." He hugged the blond teenager quickly and pulled back holding the sides of her arms. With a big smile he asked, "How are you Samantha?"

The girl was apparently thrown off for a moment as she was trying to mouth an answer.

"Getting enough sleep, enough food?"

"Yes and yes," Freddie answered quickly.

The intruding voice snapped Sam out of shock. "Watch it Fredweird," she warned with a glare at the dark headed tech producer.

"It's alright for people to care about you Sammy," Shay replied and dropped his arms to the side.

"Well I don't care about him."

"Yes you do," Carly offered with a half smile and a roll of her eyes.

Shay shook his head. "No she doesn't. Well, maybe a little bit, but the most part she doesn't."

Carly's good humor left her face and asked sharply. "How can you say that?"

Shay motioned his head to Sam. "Look in her eyes when she says it. She means exactly what she says. It's one of the things I've always liked about you; always honest even when you lie. I wish I had a few like you on my staff."

The Colonel then looked to Freddie who looked kind of nervous with seeing Carly's father. Shay gave him a light punched on the side of his arm. "Fredward Benson, you look good kid. Puberty and the rehab look like they were very good to you, since I remember you as this scrawny little boy next door. That camera doesn't do you justice."

"Still a little boy," Sam snarked.

Shay just looked to Sam for a moment then laughed. "Ah, that's cute. She remembers you as that adorable kid back then. I think those Seddie people might be right; she might have a little crush on you Freddie."

She scrunched up her noise and said, "Eww, gross. Not you too?"

Shay chuckled and patted her shoulder. "It's alright Sammy; I'm just having a little fun with you. Now what are you arguing about?"

Carly replied, "They're arguing about whether Freddie can set up a skit in time for tonight's show. Freddie says he can't and Sam says he can."

"It's too technical. I can't get the cameras and graphics ready in time," Freddie defended his decision with more gusto than he probably felt if Shay was reading him right.

"Whine, whine, whine," Sam replied while making faces at Freddie.

Shay looked to Freddie. "So you can't get it done in the next few minutes?"

"No I can't, Mr.… Colonel Shay."

"Mr. Shay is fine. Then just do it next week."

"I want to do it this week," Sam growled.

"Sam you can't always get what you want," Freddie pointed out.

She raised a fist. "I think I can get you to do what I want."

Shay grabbed her wrist and looked at her coldly for a moment. "Violence should not be the first choice when dealing with things you do not like, unless the situation really calls for it. This is not one of those situations."

Sam actually tried to stare him down for a moment, but she apparently realized it wouldn't work on him since the next moment she started blinking a few times and her arm went slack. Shay let go of her wrist somewhat confidently she and Freddie wouldn't be exchanging any blows. "Now just do whatever you are arguing about next week." Shay glanced at his watch. "You have about ten minutes, so get on," he stated with a wave of his arm up the stares.

"So you're going to be down here to watch?" Carly asked with an excited tone, but Shay could hear the faint underlining tone of nervousness.

"No," he replied overdramatically. "I thought I'd run a couple of times around the building and completely miss the show."

A side of Carly mouth curled to a half smirk and she just eyed him.

"I'll see the show and see you after the show, okay?"

"Bye I'll see you, I mean you'll—"

"Go before you're late," he interrupted with a smile.

Carly went of the stairs with an extra spring in her step.

Freddie and Sam followed behind quickly. Shay shouted, "Behave yourself Samantha."

"Whatever!" she shouted back down.

Shay shook his head and smiled. He then turned to see Spencer at the counter that divided the living room from the kitchen.

"Spencer? Are you going to do your baby Spencer routine tonight?"

"Ah, no."

Shay shook his head. "That's too bad, because that is really funny."

"That doesn't embarrass you?"

"What? You being a comedian? No, it would have embarrassed me if it wasn't funny. By the way, did you get a second date with that lady in the purple dress?"

"Candice?"

Shay shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. I never caught her name."

"No, she didn't think I was 'sophisticated'."

"I guess spitting that tarter sauce in her face was a big turnoff," Shay replied then laughed. A few moments later after catching his breath he continued, "Your mother would have just had a good laugh at it. Did you know that about Candice before you went out on a date with her?"

Spencer rolled his eyes. "Kinda," he half-heartedly intoned in his response.

"Then why did you go out with her?"

"Because she was sophisticated; she wore pantyhose."

Shay blinked. He then blinked again. "Ah, Spencer… is that code for something?"

"Code?" the artist asked with perplexed look.

Shay raised both eyebrows at Spencer's response. "Never mind. So," pointing to the computer monitor on the counter, "fire this up so we can watch the show."

"Sure thing dad."

Freddie would be lying if he wasn't a little bit nervous about tonight's show as he operated his old standby camera and focusing on Carly as she acted out one of their new bits. Beside the last minute pressure to be at his best for Carly since she was nervous about putting a great show on for her dad, they were still feeling the backlash of the Webicon Q&A being leaked on the internet, specifically Carly's speech.

The weekly viewer ship took a sharp hit of being down twenty to twenty-five percent for about three weeks after Webicon, but after that they had steadily built the audience back each week until they were almost back to their usual numbers. Carly and Sam assumed this was mostly due to the facts of adding some new, funnier skits and revamping some classic ones. Sure, the skits were getting funnier and with greater variety, but if he could be honest with anyone, it wasn't entirely for those reasons the show was coming back. The viewers now didn't believe what Carly really said and he had made sure of that.

The times he was in front of the camera, he would take a customary step towards Carly to be close by her side. It wasn't because he wanted to be closer to her (that was a perk he would admit); it was for the audience's benefit. Because unlike the days before their dance at the Groovy Smoothie after the Girls Choice Dance about two years ago, Carly never asked him to take any step away from her. She didn't even make any mention on or off camera about the brush of his fingertips across the skin of the side of her midriff when they did what the fans had dubbed "Idiot Farm Girl and Fredward Cullen" bit. He was particularly proud of that skit for accomplishing what it did for his overall plan since it became the most popular downloaded skit from the site, but he had to admit the fake fangs were a pain. He even purposely made jokes to Sam that people could interpret in certain ways if they twisted themselves into a pretzel. He betted on the audience to make something out of it and his bet paid off.

The message boards on the site and elsewhere roared back (and demanded another and more Idiot Farm Girl and Fredward Cullen bits). If Carly wanted to think the audience was back due to the skits and comedy, why not let her believe? He would certainly never tell Carly what he was doing. If he had to be a little devious to make Carly happy, well so be it.

And if a certain portion of the fandom watched to see who may get with whom, who was he to complain, especially if a good number of them were rooting for him to be with Carly. Besides, how could he judge hundreds of thousands of people based on how just a comparable handful of people reacted at WebiCon. He knew how often he got judged enough by being an AV nerd and Galaxy War fan.

Even all that was in the back of his mind when the biggest concern had been dropped on him at the last minute: meeting Carly's father. It had been years since the last time he had seen the man when Freddie was the more or less a thirteen year old runt. He wasn't sure how Carly's father would react to him, especially if Colonel Shay knew about his earlier mistakes in pursuing Carly. What surprised him and actually terrified him was that friendly disposition of Colonel Shay towards him instead of the stern Colonel that he expected. If what Carly had told Sam and he was true about her father staying for nearly a month, he didn't know how he was going to get through it.

He couldn't dwell on that as he realized that the time was nearly up on the show. Carly and Sam made their customary goodbyes.

"And we are clear," Freddie announced as he cut the feed.

Carly let out a whoop and threw up a pumped fist into the air and Sam randomly danced for a few seconds.

"Nice job people; that was great," Freddie complimented as he was putting away his camera on his tech-cart.

In an anxious tone, Carly asked the Tech Producer, "Do you really think it was good?"

He hoped he was returning with a reassuring smile as he replied, "Of course, I bet your dad loved it."

It seemed his smile did the trick as Carly smiled at him in that way that would always cause him pause for moment.

"I still can't believe he's going to be here for a month," she spoke almost giddily. "This is going to be great."

"It sure is," Freddie smiled at the brunette, but the knot in his stomach disagreed.

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**Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed these two chapters from OneHorseShay. If you guys have any burning questions, send me a PM and I'll ask OHS to enlighten me so I can enlighten you. Either I'm re-enacting 'Pay It Forward' or Jerry McGuire with 'help me help you', I'm not entirely sure. Ok, that's all from me this weekend (I think). Anymore posting and I might spontaneously combust. Cheers! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hey there, Sports Fans! A big thank you to everyone who reviewed the first two chapters of this story, you guys are awesome. If the reviews keep floating in, OneHorseShay told me he might have to work on getting himself an FF account so we don't have to share the limelight anymore ;D As promised, two more chapters this week. I hope you like the offerings, cheers. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.  
**

* * *

"That was great, Cupcake; very funny, Samantha, great camera work, Freddie," Shay complemented the trio as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You have two out of three right," Sam commented with a mischievous grin and poked Freddie in the arm. Freddie glared at the dirty blonde.

Shay let out a tired breath and replied, "You caught me."

Sam smirked at Freddie with an obvious feeling of triumph.

"I just wasn't feeling it from you, Samantha. Your delivery was a little flat and timing was slightly off. You need to practice a little more."

She scowled at him while Freddie smirked.

Shay smiled at her and ruffled the top of her head affectionately. "I'm just kidding. Don't setup one that easy next time, my little Hell raiser."

Sam seemed to be at a lost on how to snap a comeback from his backdoor approval of her. Shay didn't give her the opportunity as he rubbed his hands together and asked, "So, what's your ritual for after a show? Do you go out or what?"

"I thought we'd celebrate you being here with some Spaghetti Tacos," Spencer offered as he stood behind his father.

Shay glanced at his son then back to Carly as she nearly shouted in a joyful tone, "That's a great idea. They are fantastic. You'll love them."

"Ah the famous Spaghetti Tacos; I'm intrigued about this creation."

Shay was surprised at the speed at which Spencer went to work to cook the spaghetti and prepare the tacos. It was almost comedic as Spencer weaved through the kitchen to prepare the water and other necessities to get the meal ready.

He asked with a hint of a smile to his daughter, "Since that will take a few minutes to cook, do I finally going to see your room?" He thought his daughter would break her face with the smile she was giving him.

Shay followed his daughter with the other two teenagers and Spencer following him into the large and heavily decorated room. Shay whistled as he scanned the room taking in all the remodelled features that had been added and redone since he saw the room last before the fire. He glanced at the initialled 'CS' skateboard hanging beside her bed then up to the Gummy Bear chandelier.

He walked around the circumference of the room, passing the bed, taking a moment to dip his foot onto the purple circle and quickly realizing it was a mini-trampoline, and stopping by the clear door of the closet. He permitted himself a small smile at noticing the touch screen panel that he assumed controlled the closet and guessed who installed it. His eyes scanned across the various pictures on the wall (taking particular note of how many pictures there were of Freddie and the lack of pictures of him and her mother), the variety of knickknacks and the large screen monitor at the head of a desk. He took particular interest in the electric guitar hanging on the wall beside the desk and briefly wondered if she had taken up his old hobby.

He then took a seat on the ice cream sandwich seat and noticed the water table. "Wow, this is nice, Cupcake. It's you."

"Thanks, I'm really happy with it."

"I'm glad to hear it." He looked to Spencer and asked, "So how much did this cost again?"

"Eighty-two thousand," Spencer replied cheerfully as he took the seat across from Shay.

"Eighty-two thousand?" Shay asked casually with a nod of his head.

"Yep, eighty-two thousand dollars. He spent all of it on the room," Sam answered in a tone that matched Spencer's.

Shay looked over to Spencer with a cold stare only for a moment before letting it slip away and replaced with one of mild curiosity. He spoke calmly, but there was a tenor of uneasiness in his voice as he spoke to all of them, but looked directly at Spencer. "Eighty-two thousand on the room. That was quite generous of Spencer to spend that much of his own money on you while he's paying for law school."

Spencer let out a nervous breath and was about to reply when Carly patted her father's arm. "No, we used the insurance money from great-grammy's diamond incrusted watch."

"We? I thought the repair and makeover was a surprise for you."

Carly took a seat on the couch with Freddie sitting beside her a moment later. Sam remained standing beside Spencer's seat. The proximity of how close his daughter and her male best friend were sitting together and neither one moving away from the other was not lost on the forty-something. "It was. They did it when I was working at the Groovy Smoothie."

"Then how did we decide on anything?" Shay asked with a raised eyebrow. His current job called for him to put pieces that didn't apparently fit together into a coherent picture about a situation. He just hated having to use the same techniques to gather other pieces on his own children.

"No, we didn't, but it was a surprise. So you really like it?"

He nodded in response. "Of course. Your mother would have loved it. I think she'd love this water table the most. Is that a remote control boat?" Shay pointed to one of the boats floating on the table with an antenna sticking up.

Freddie answered, "Yes, it's really fun."

Carly laughed for a moment before patting Freddie's arm and adding, "Yep, he plays with it all the time."

Shay grinned as he directed the question at Freddie, "So you're in here a lot?"

Freddie started mouthing like a fish out of water, but surprisingly it was Sam that came to his 'rescue', "That's because I just haven't figured out how to get rid of him."

"Sam!" Carly admonished.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Sorry."

Shay ran a hand over his mouth to hide the smile then ran down his chin. It wasn't just because of Carly's 'parenting' of Sam, but the momentary look of discomfort from Freddie when he realized the possible ramifications of what he and Carly had admitted that made the Colonel smile. The former flyer got up from what he had to admit was a very comfortable seat. "Well I guess we need to check on the spaghetti."

Sam immediately ran to the door because of the involvement of food, followed by Carly and Freddie. Spencer was the last to get up and was slower than the rest leaving for a moment just the Shay guys in the room.

"Spencer," Shay snapped.

The lanky artist turned slowly to face his father. Spencer swallowing nervously was apparent to Shay, but the Colonel had little sympathy for his son at the moment.

"Before I leave, you and I are going to have a conversation about this," he stated pointing randomly around the room, "and on being generous with money that does not belong to you."

Spencer swallowed a lump that suddenly formed in his throat. "Sure, Dad."

"Come on, can't let the spaghetti boil-over," Shay commented with a smile he really didn't feel and walked past his son and out of the room.

The trio and Colonel Shay were around the kitchen table as Spencer presented their plates of spaghetti tacos. Shay studied the food on his plate for a moment trying to figure out how he was going to eat it. He resisted the urge to poke it with a fork.

"You eat it just like a taco," Carly suggested with a hint of a smile. She then picked it up and bit into with apparent joy on her face from the taste of it.

After a moment's hesitation, he mimicked his daughter's actions. After a few chews, Shay stated, "Interesting." After a few more bites he took a moment to look observe everyone at the table: Carly was on the verge of giddiness as she ate, Sam was stuffing her face too quickly to be paying attention to anything but the food in front of her, Spencer still looked spooked from the conversation they had in Carly's room and Freddie—it was harder to read the boy.

It appeared to Shay that the tech producer had come a long way from that small boy he remembered in person. Of course he had watched the change through the webshow over the years, but it was entirely different when interacting with him in person. He remembered Freddie as a happy and open boy that let his feelings rest on his sleeve, but the person sitting to Carly's left put up an impressive poker face with only sparing an occasional glace at Carly. That is where he slipped as the eyes gave away his thoughts of revelling in Carly's happiness as he tried to drown his on apprehension.

Shay's thoughts were interrupted when Sam asked with a mouthful of food, "So you're finally glad to get off that sub?"

"What sub?"

"The sub you're stationed on," Carly offered.

Shay stated slowly with a hint of uncertainty, "I'm not on a sub."

"I thought you were on a sub."

He gave his daughter a perplexed look. "Why?"

"Because you told me you were."

Shay looked to Spencer with an annoyed look and the younger Shay reeled back for a moment. He spoke slowly and in a deliberate voice, "Spencer William Shay, you didn't tell her the truth?"

Spencer chuckled nervously, "Ah, no, it kind of slipped my mind."

"Tell me what?" Carly asked as she looked between the two male Shays.

The Colonel eyed his son for another moment before turning his attention to Carly. "Cupcake, I'm not on a sub. That was just code for security purposes for what I do. Spencer here was supposed to tell you that when you got old enough to play along. Obviously he forgot to tell you. Is there anything else you forgot to tell me, Spencer?"

Spencer shook his head. "Ah, no."

"Right," the elder Shay replied in a tone that indicated he doubted Spencer's word.

"So what does the code mean and where are you really?"

"I can't tell you with those two here," gesturing to Freddie and Sam. "All I'll say is that the sub reference is that I work with some Navy personnel at my job; it is a joint assignment. I really can't say more than that right now. I'll tell you later. If anyone asks, tell them I told you I was on a sub."

"Okay," Carly replied, seemingly accepting the explanation.

The rest of the meal went on with Shay watching the group and listening intently to some of the goings on that had happened to them over the last few months, taking special note of anything that Spencer and Carly had left out of their e-mails to him.

The telling of Sam and Pam going to therapy and Pam's continued lack of parental concern for her daughter put a particularly nasty look of disgust on his face that he had to quickly hide with a sip from his bottled soft drink. He realized if his wife was still here, those two would have gone at it like cats and dogs because of the lack of love and concern the blonde would have for Sam. He zoned out for just a moment realizing if the circumstances had been a little different he might have really been raising two daughters at his wife's insistence.

He did refocus is attention to the conversation with the story of Mrs. Benson moving in to his home without permission with this 'Gunsmoke' fellow when she was concerned about some hammer guy going after Freddie annoyed him further, especially him laying his hands on his children. If he ran across that fellow, he might put a few more thumb size holes in him. He didn't fail to notice the causal patting of Carly's hand on Freddie's forearm to show her sympathy to him about the incident and their sharing of mutual smile to one another.

Spencer starting pranking again was particularly more amusing story than simply being told over e-mail and gave Shay the opportunity to tell the real reason why Spencer stopped after the garlic powder incident: Momma Shay whooping his fourteen year old tail; the only time she had ever laid her hands on any of her children. The artist was quite embarrassed at that revelation.

The meal winded down after about an hour. As Spencer was putting the plates in the sink, the trio was going upstairs to spend the remainder of the evening. As the trio headed back up the stairs, Shay called out, "Mr. Benson, may I have a moment of your time?"

Freddie looked to Carly with a confused look then back to Shay, "Ah yes, Sir."

"I won't keep him long, kiddo," he reassured his daughter.

Sam looked like she was going to make some joke at Freddie, but Carly gave her a sharp glance which shut the little troublemaker's mouth.

"I'll be up in a few minutes," Freddie whispered to Carly.

She nodded and gave him a small smile. The two girls quickly went up the stairs and Freddie came back to the table and taking Carly's former seat to be across for the Air Force Colonel. Shay hoped he was giving a genuinely friendly smile to the young man.

* * *

**Author's Note: Oh dear, Spencer is in trouble for using Great-Grammy's diamond-encrusted watch to redecorate Carly's bedroom :0 And what could Colonel Shay possibly want with Freddie? I was pretty scared of Mr. Shay myself after reading these initial chapters. But I will tell you one thing for free: there's more than what meets the eye with Colonel Shay ;D I hope you guys enjoy chapter 4, cheers :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: Tiny spoiler alert - there will be an exchange of fiery words. But the question is, who will it be between? Read below to find out ;D**

******Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**  


* * *

Freddie got comfortable in his seat as he faced the dark headed middle-age man. The smile directed at him was not as comforting to him as it should have been. Freddie took a deep breath to calm his nerves for whatever Mr. Shay wanted to talk to him about.

The older man looked to his son at the sink. "Spencer? Do you not have some studying to do?"

"Studying?" he asked with a perplex look on his face.

"Your law classes," he gently reminded his absent minded son.

"Right law classes… I should get some study time in," he replied nervously then practically ran to his room.

Shay smiled. "My son, the law student." He looked back to Freddie. "Now where was I, oh yes…I was wondering if you would be interested in a little computer project I had in mind in regards to iCarly?"

Freddie was quite surprised at the subject Mr. Shay wanted to discuss and didn't bother hiding his shocked expression.

Shay grinned. "From your expression, I gather this isn't what you thought I wanted to talk about or even remotely a possibility. What did you think I wanted to talk to you about?"

Freddie shook his head. "Nothing, Sir—what kind of project did you have in mind?"

Shay kept his grin and nodded. "A security one. This…Nevel Papperman fellow gives me great concerns."

Freddie raised an eyebrow then let out an annoyed sigh. "Nevel has been a pain a number of times."

"Too much of one as I understand it," Shay replied in a deliberately cold tone.

Freddie pushed down the nervousness and apprehension he felt from Mr. Shay's directed gaze taking comfort in the fact that it wasn't truly directed at him—at least he hoped that none was directed at him. A brief thought crossed his mind of Nevel wetting himself if he was in this seat instead of him.

"How do you know about Nevel, Sir?"

Freddie was relieved when Mr. Shay returned with friendly smile before answering, "Just because I'm not here doesn't mean I don't keep in touch with my children. You of all people should understand that there other ways to communicate with people besides landlines and cell phones. Heck, I read the tweet that Carly spat in Nate Gardner's eye when she tried to ask him to the girl's choice dance two years ago; it was a few days after the fact, but I still learned about it. I didn't care much for Sam's solution to Carly's dilemma, but… it was unique. So you would be quite surprised how up to speed I am on my children's lives."

Freddie thought back for a moment how that lousy night had ended on a fantastic note. "Yeah, speed dating…"

"The results of Samantha's little plan may have not been as satisfying as expected, but Carly thought the evening ended very, very well."

"She did?" asked with evident surprise in his voice.

Shay nodded. "Yes she did, but enough about that," he answered with a chuckle.

Shay cleared his throat and began again. "From everything Carly has wrote me about all his antics, especially the Shelby Marx incident, to the achieved shows that he interrupted and the fact that Roger had to…"

"Roger?"

"Colonel Morgan. He had to string Nevel up and made him call himself a little weenie and took his computer equipment the first time around to get him to back off. Knowing all that wants me to bring that boy to heel and that is were you come in," he answered and pointed a finger at the Tech Producer.

"I do?"

"Yes. I can make sure the system is protected, but it is your baby. You know it inside and out, so I'm going to need your help if I'm going to do that in any reasonable amount of time. Feel up to the challenge? I can guarantee that it will be fun and I can teach you some computer tricks you wouldn't learn until Grad School."

Freddie hesitated to answer, but found his voice to reply and asked, "Yes, Sir, but you really know how to do that?"

Shay grinned at him, but more like when a cat looks at a canary. "I'm in the Air Force, son. Don't you know our motto? We fly, fight and win … in air, space and cyberspace. I've learned a great many things in my twenty-six years in the Air Force and if Nevel wants a rematch one day with iCarly, I want you to be able to give him a fight he'll never forget. Then we just have him arrested for cyberterrorism for the fun of it."

Colonel Shay's enthusiasm was contagious and Freddie smiled deviously. Nevel always had the better equipment and hated to admit it, the superior expertise on computer security, but now he had the means to teach that little twerp a lesson by handing his melon shaped head on a silver platter. He thought maybe he didn't have to worry about Carly's father so much, but he realized only time would tell.

"I guess we'll start sometime later in the week and work around the iCarly schedule. I want to spend the first few days with my children, you understand."

Freddie nodded. "Yes, Sir."

Shay motioned his hand towards the stairs. "Well on your way; don't want you to miss your fun with your girls."

"Yes, Sir." Freddie stood up from his seat and headed to the stairs.

* * *

As soon as Freddie walked in the room Sam asked in a singsong voice and grin as she relaxed on Carly's bed, "You in trouble with daddy Shay?"

"No," Freddie replied in a drawn out no.

"What did you two talk about?" Carly asked as she lay on her couch and lowered her PearPad from her lap. Freddie caught the momentary look of concern on Carly's face before she quickly hid it with an unconvincing smile. Well, unconvincing to him, maybe to others.

"He wants the two of us to do some security work on the iCarly site next weekend."

Sam sat up from the bed. "Come on, Fredenstein, what did he really want?"

"That's really what he wants to do. He wants to teach Nevel a lesson the next time he wants to mess with iCarly." He looked to Carly. "Your dad is very unhappy with Nevel and I wouldn't want to be him."

"Oh my god is it going to be 'Nerds Gone Wild' for you two?" Sam sarcastically asked.

Freddie rolled his eyes then a grin formed on his face. "I dare you to say that to him."

Sam looked like she was about to say something then apparently thought better of it. That reaction just put a larger grin on Freddie's face.

* * *

About two hours after dinner and his conversation with Freddie, Shay heard banging on the apartment door. Shay sighed and clicked the mute button on the TV remote. He got up from the couch and took a quick peek through the peephole.

With an audible groan he unchanged the door and unlocked the deadbolt. Shay opened the door to reveal a woman just slightly shorter than he with a slight tint of red to her brunette hair.

Shay forced himself to smile. "Marissa, it's so nice to see you."

"Steven? Well isn't this a surprise. It's been a long time since the last time I saw you."

"Hasn't been long enough for me," he mumbled under his breath.

"What?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing, just clearing my throat. It's been awhile since I've dealt with Seattle weather. It's really coming down out there now."

"Quite dreadful, isn't it? I hope you're not getting sick. I don't want Freddie catching anything."

"If I am, I will make it a point to cough on Freddie. Make sure the kid builds up his immune system, because I know you've done everything in your power to cripple it with your hypochondriactic ways."

The color from Mrs. Benson's face seemed to almost drain from her face from the insult. Apparently Mrs. Benson shook it off fairly quickly and decided to attempt to take a step to enter the apartment, but Shay shot out his hand to grab the doorframe to his right to block her path with his arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Coming inside."

"Why? I didn't invite you in, Marissa."

Mrs. Benson blinked at him in surprise. "I've always been welcomed."

"No, you haven't. The way I understand it you've barged into my home whenever you have felt like it. I want to make it clear to you: this is my home, Marissa. I get the final say who does or does not come into my home. So the days of you just barging in here are over."

The Benson matriarch narrowed her sight at the taller man and asked softly, "May I come inside?"

"Why?"

"Because I need to get Freddie."

"Again, why?"

"It's getting late, he needs his sleep."

Shay looked at his watch then up at her. "Ten thirty-one is late on a Friday night?"

"Yes."

"Marissa, it's Friday and he's seventeen. How is that late for him?"

"It's after ten thirty," she stated as if that was enough of an explanation for him.

Shay let out a breath and chuckled for a second, "Ah, Marissa… I see you are still as nutty as a fruitcake."

Mrs. Benson gave him an angry glare and Shay responded to it with a roll of his eyes. "Marissa, it's time for you to cut the umbilical cord. Your son is fine. Let him have some fun."

"I'm his mother—"

"And he's my guest in my home and he's welcome to stay as long as he wants."

"I'm going to get my son, Steven," she replied with a harsh stare.

Shay stared back just as harshly and replied, "No, you're not. You can not bully me, Marissa; I heard he had to move out after your stunt with those greens on an iCarly show. You didn't force him home when he was fifteen; you sure as Hell are not going to force him out of _my home_when he's seventeen."

She huffed out angrily. "If your wife was here, she would agree with me."

Shay literally bit his tongue for a moment at the sheer audacity the woman had at assuming what his wife would or would not have done. After letting out a slow breath, he took a step forward and looked directly into her eyes. "You never met my wife so you don't have a damn clue what she would do, but I will tell you what my wife would do if she was here: you would not have been allowed in our home so you could humiliate your son in front of nearly a million people with your damn stunt about some damn vegetables he hadn't eaten and if somehow you did make it up there, Freddie would have moved in with us at fifteen and would have stayed as long as he wanted."

Mrs. Benson was left speechless as Shay took a step back and then slammed the door in her face. He then realized something he forgot to say and opened the door to see her shocked expression. "And another thing, if my peaceful, wouldn't hurt a fly wife was here, she would have done worse to you than that taco truck did to Freddie." He then slammed the door again and locked the deadbolt and chain.

He turned around to see Spencer staring at him dumbfounded. He assumed his son had exited his room to see what the commotion was about.

"What? Your mother had a big heart; you know that. She would have told me to let Freddie stay," Shay answered indignantly at the unasked question.

"No, not that. What you just said to Mrs. Benson—"

"Your mother could be very feisty under that sweet and peaceful demeanor. Where do you think Carlotta gets it from?"

The uneasiness that Spencer was feeling was quite apparent to Shay. His son's expressiveness could be a double-edge sword and it showed. "Dad, don't you think that was a little harsh?"

"I can assure you Spencer that your mother would not be as kind to that woman as I am…"

Before the Colonel could continue, a loud banging started at the other side of the apartment door.

Shay let out an exacerbated sigh, "Oh for God sakes." He turned back to the door and shouted, "Bang all you want, Marissa! I'm not letting you inside!"

The three teenagers made their way down the stairs from hearing the noise.

"What's going on?" Carly asked as she reached the bottom step.

"Mrs. Benson is throwing a temper-tantrum outside," Shay replied not even attempting to hide his annoyance.

"Why?"

"Dad won't let her in," Spencer offered.

Freddie asked curiously, "Why won't you let my mother in?"

He glared at Freddie for a moment, but realized what he was doing quickly softened his expression. He spoke in a calmer voice than he felt, "Mr. Benson, I do not have to explain why I will allow or not allow someone in my home. Suffice it to say, she is not welcome in my home at the present time."

Freddie sighed and replied, "I need to go home."

Shay used his command voice as he stated, "You can stay as long as you want Freddie."

Freddie licked his lips as he thought over what Shay had said and with his anxious mother outside. "Thank you for the offer, Mr. Shay, but I need to get home." Freddie walked past him and proceeded to undo the locks of the door.

As Freddie was undoing the deadbolt, Shay snapped as if he was talking to one of his enlisted men or women, "Mr. Benson."

Freddie stopped in his tracks and Shay assumed the footstep noise was of the teenager turning around to look at his back.

Shay could hear the slight tremor in the young man's voice when he answered, "Yes, Sir?"

Shay didn't turn around as he spoke, "If your mother gives you too much trouble, you come right back here; no renting an apartment from Lewbert, understood?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"On your way then."

Shay heard the footsteps of Freddie exiting then the inevitable argument between mother and son, one in which Freddie apparently was not going to take his mother's overbearing argument as they entered their own apartment.

"That is one messed up woman," Sam commented in a dry tone.

Shay muttered in a low whispered. "Yes she is. I know I'll be smiling as the two of us are rotting in Hell together."

"What?" Carly asked in a shocked tone.

Shay turned to Carly with a grin splattered on his face. "I said I'm going to hit the sack; still catching up with the new date. Goodnight, Cupcake. Night, Spencer. Night, Samantha." He then walked over and kissed his daughter on the forehead then made his way up the stairs. He shouted one last time when he was nearly up to the next floor, "Remember, Spencer, if Mr. Benson comes back, you're to let him in to stay the night and call the cops on Marissa if you have to and I definitely mean the first part."

* * *

**Author's Note: Ooh la la, Colonel Shay and Freddie are gonna work together to bring Nevel down. And Colonel Shay put Mrs Benson in her place - shoo! Don't know about you guys, but Steven seems like a real 'kiss ass and take names later' kind of dude. Must be all the military training ;D But see what I meant about there being another side to him, a side that cares about the well-being of his children and their friends. This is easily one of my new favourite Creddie stories. I hope in time, you'll see why :D So be sure to leave some reviews (and don't forget about lil' ol' me and my angsty Creddie fic, "I'm Fine"). Have a great weekend, cheerio!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you're all having a great week. I'm just stoked it was a shorter weekend thanks to the Easter weekend and celebrating Freedom Day two days ago :) I hope you all enjoy OneHorseShay's offerings this week. He's currently working on the third story in this marvellous series, I've got a good feeling about it :D **

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**  


* * *

Steven Shay had already been up several hours when he was at the stove cooking breakfast. Despite the time difference that he was adjusting to, he was still able to get up at a relative early hour on a Saturday. He considered fixing his children's breakfast a unique treat since it had been a long time since he had done it. Those were of happier times before his life took a detour to Hell for a while. It was those better times that brought a brief smile to his face.

"Food!" Sam shouted as she bounced down the stairs.

Her arrival brought the Colonel out of his reminiscing and he replied over his shoulder, "It will be ready in a moment, so go wash your hands."

"I want food."

He looked over his shoulder to the blonde standing at the threshold of the living room and kitchen. She was obviously wearing borrowed pajama pants from Carly and an old T-shirt from Spencer. There was a slight tone of desperation in her voice. Others may not have picked it up, but he knew he heard it or maybe he was imagining the tone and he just wanted to hear it, either way it pulled at him. He wondered briefly how many times this girl had told her mother that when she was a child and that loser of a mother had ignored her. That then led to thought about how this girl's life would have been different if his wife was here. He pushed the hatred he felt for Pam and the unfairness of it all down before it could bubble up to the surface.

"Then go wash your hands," he countered with a small smile; the best he could manage for the moment.

"Fine," she muttered and went to the sink to wash her hands.

Shay turned his attention back to the eggs and cooking Canadian bacon. He heard a stifled yawn from across the apartment that he recognized as Spencer's.

"Eww, breakfast!" Spencer shouted as he was suddenly wide awake and ran into the kitchen.

"Yes, I thought it was better than eating Mini-Wheats or Fiber-Nuts," Shay commented as he was taking the eggs off the stove.

Spencer grabbed a seat and held his utensils up ready to eat.

"Hey! You told me to wash my hands. What about him?" Sam asked indignantly and a certain level of whining from her.

Father looked to son for a moment, before the elder commented, "I didn't expect I'd have to tell my twenty-nine year old son to go wash his hands before eating."

Spencer's smile turned into an overdramatic frown and he sat the fork and knife down to get up from his seat to go wash his hands. That was his first mistake as Sam immediate swooped in to take his seat and picked up his discarded utensils.

Shay let himself a hearty laugh at their shared antics.

"I see what happened to that little crush…" Shay thought he heard Spencer mumble to himself. The Colonel shook his head disregarding what he heard as the sound of his own laugh drowning out the Spencer's voice and just the nonsensical morning mumbles of his son still waking up.

"Morn—ing," Carly stifled a yawn with the back of a hand as she walked down the stairs.

"Morning, kiddo, breakfast will be ready in a moment, but go wash your hands."

"What?" the brunette asked with a perplexed look.

"Just play along please. I'm having enough trouble from these two."

Spencer and Sam gave him a hurt expression; well Sam gave him a more outraged expression, but didn't say anything.

Carly gave her father a slight grin then headed for the sink to wash her hands as well.

Once the three were seated, Shay started raking eggs onto their individual plates then proceeded to do the same with the waffles followed by toast. He made it a point to put double the amount of food on Sam's plate.

"Why does she get more?" Spencer asked in a tone that was borderline whinnying and Carly grinning at her brother's reaction.

Shay resisted rolling his eyes. "Because she needs it more," he replied in a dry tone.

Sam grinned mischievously at Spencer. The thought of Spencer sticking his tongue out at her did cross the Colonel's mind due to Spencer's lack of maturity at times.

Shay sat down ready to begin eating when a knock from the door transmitted through the apartment catching everyone's attention. "I got it," Carly stood up from her seat and headed for the door. She opened the door to reveal Freddie on the other side. Even from across the apartment he could see Freddie flashing a smile to Carly, but it quickly left his face when he caught sight of the Colonel.

Shay also caught sight of Carly's smile faulting for just a moment as she turned around and led Freddie to the kitchen. Shay raised an eyebrow at the apparent lack of concern from the girls with Freddie being there and the girls just in their pajamas. Apparently no one found that odd or said anything about Freddie being over here the first thing in the morning. He filed away that thought in his head as he got up from his seat to get the remaining hot food and offered, "Just in time for breakfast Freddie, take a seat."

"Thanks," Freddie replied with a nod and took the same seat as last night. Freddie spared a smile to Carly before digging into his breakfast.

To the war veteran, Freddie seemed slightly apprehensive as he ate, but hid it well and doubted few could tell. One of those few, however, was his daughter as he watched her give Freddie the same kind of look his wife use to give him when she was concerned about him. His suspicions were confirmed when Carly placed a hand on Freddie's right forearm when he sat his arm down on the table for a moment between mouthfuls of food and the two shared a brief look with one another.

Sam was about to speak, but Shay gave her a quick glance that indicated that whatever she was about to say that it shouldn't be any insult or rude comment to Freddie. Surprisingly to him, she heeded his unspoken advice/instruction and dug back into her food.

Shay watched and listened to the idle chit chat between Spencer and Sam that animated the table, but the silence shared between Carly and Freddie was an enigma initially to him. It took him about a minute or so of causally observing them between randomly imputing a comment or question into Spencer's and Sam's conversation to determine that the brunette pair was sharing a comfortable silence, but speaking to one another none the less. A small smile here, a casual look there when one thought the other wasn't looking until they both caught each other looking at the other. A brief smile would be shared then back to eating. He wondered for a moment if it was a planned form of nonverbal communication between them or just one that had developed naturally over time.

Not to anyone's surprise, Sam was the first to finish her breakfast. As soon as she finished her last bite of food she demanded, "We need dessert."

"Dessert? It's just about nine thirty in the morning," Shay stated with an apparent look of confusion.

"Pie for after breakfast," Spencer offered followed by Sam shouting with a pumped fist in the air, "Pie for after breakfast!"

Shay's eyebrows furled up as he looked at the pair then looked to Carly. "Pie for after breakfast? Help me out Carlotta."

"They're talking about Gallini's pie," Carly offered an explanation.

"I want pie," Sam stated forcefully.

He looked to Spencer. "Are you talking about that pie you wanted so much that you disrupted a man's memorial service?"

"Yes," Spencer answered shamefully and bowed his head to shove his last piece of the Canadian ham into his mouth.

Shay kept a narrow look at Spencer for a moment before turning to Sam. "Mmmm… well I guess we can do that, but you will behave yourself Samantha. No fighting or general mayhem, not today anyway. Is that understood young lady?"

She rolled her eyes as she answered, "Okay."

"Okay what?"

"Yes, sir. I will behave myself."

Carly then suggested, "You have to try Gallini's pie. It is absolutely the best. Then we could go to the outdoor market at Seattle Square. It's still open; we have to go before it closes at the end of the month."

"Okay, it sounds good. You two ladies do what you have to do and we'll head out when you're ready."

Carly flashed a smile towards her father then a glance to Freddie and got up from her seat. Sam shoveled some of Carly's left over breakfast in her mouth and quickly followed the brunette back upstairs.

Shay came down a few minutes later after throwing on a pair of blue jeans, an old Air Force T-shirt and his old A-2 Flight Jacket. As he waited for the girls to come back down and Spencer to come out of his room, he took a few moments to study Spencer's metal sculpture trying to figure out where Spencer was heading with it. He doubted his son knew for sure; his wife would tell him that pieces would sometimes take a life all their own and outside the control of the artist and you just had to hang on for the ride until it was over. At the moment it could just be a metal tree or maybe there was no deeper meaning and it was up to the viewer to find meaning in it.

His thoughts were interrupted when Freddie stated, "My mother is not very happy with you, sir."

Shay turned to look at the dark headed teenager standing near the door to the apartment. There was no fear or apprehension from Freddie's stance as the two exchanged stares.

"The feeling is quite mutual," the Colonel replied in a low tone hoping that he had kept most of the venom out of his voice.

"May I ask why?"

He didn't pick up any fear in the young man's voice, but there was that tremor of uncertainty. Shay didn't know if it came from Freddie possibly having to verbally fence with him or doubt in his mother's story Shay knew would be particularly one sided.

"Are you speaking about last night or just in general?"

Freddie apparently didn't expect that question and hesitated for a moment before asking, "Last night?"

He realized he wasn't as successful in keeping a civil tone as he hoped as he spoke, "I don't know what your mother told you about our conversation, but your mother should not have presumed to tell me what my late-wife would have or would not have done if she was here, especially since your mother never met my wife. I did not appreciate that and I told her in no uncertain terms. If you have a problem with me speaking to your mother that way I understand, but I will not apologize to her because it was the truth."

Freddie looked down to the floor and his eyes seemed to dart to anything that could hold his attention for a moment. After apparently failing, Freddie looked up and replied, "I'm not here to defend my mother's actions. My mother can be… overzealous and sometimes… insensitive when it involves me. I didn't realize what she had said to you or implied sir."

He returned with a cold tone, "Let's just hope that she isn't as insensitive around my daughter when it comes to the subject of my late-wife. You are fortunate to have your mother growing up. My son had the fortune to grow up with his mother 'til his second year of college, but Carly did not and I will not have your mother rub that in her face as a way to score conversational points when Marissa has a disagreement with me."

"She won't… I'll make sure she won't."

"Careful what you promise me, son, I'll hold you to it."

Shay heard the slight nervousness Freddie's voice, but he put enough force behind his voice to leave little doubt to the sincerity of the young man's words, "It's not a promise to you; it's a promise to Carly."

Shay tilted his head to the side just slightly to study the young man as Freddie stood his ground. The Colonel allowed a hint of a smile cross his lips.

"I want pie!" Sam shouted from the top of the stairs.

Shay and Freddie both looked up at the blonde haired demon. Shay smiled warmly at the girl. "Then let's get pie."

* * *

**Author's Notes: I hope you all liked this one. I really appreciate all the feedback and reviews for this story, so does OneHorseShay. If anyone's got any burning questions for him, please drop me a line and I'll pass on the message to him. Now onto chapter 6! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: Hey, everyone! I hope you all enjoy chapter 6 - in my opinion, it's very cukey in Creddie terms ;D Enjoy!**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**  


* * *

Gallini's Pie Shop  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, September 2011

Carly was practically pulling on his arm as the former flyer entered the family pie shop. Shay laughed at his daughter's childish behavior, "Alright, alright, we're here, I'll try the pie."

Spencer followed right behind the pair and called out the man behind the counter, "Hey, Mario."

Mario greeted the group as they conjugated around one of the tables, "Hello. How is my favorite group of people?"

Carly answered, "We're doing fantastic." She tugged on her father's arm. "This is my dad Colonel Shay," Carly introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Mario," Shay greeted and offered his hand. The Italian and the Colonel shook hands before Shay was the last one seated.

"So what brings you in on this fine Saturday morning? As if I had to guess," Mario questioned cheerfully.

"Spencer and I wanted to treat our dad to one of the famous cocoanut cream pies. Do you think you could help us out with that?"

"No problem. We have some fresh ones coming right out of the oven."

"I can't wait," Shay heard Spencer stated in a child like giddy tone.

"Easy, son; you'll get your pie," Shay gently reminded the hyper-artist.

A minute or so later Mario came back with several pies and to Shay's surprise Sam didn't dig right into one of them. He didn't know if he should be worried or amused after her insistence on getting pie.

Carly cut a piece of pie for her father and placed the plate in front of him. "Wait a sec," Carly told him and she reached into her jean pocket to pull out her PearPhone and pointed the back of it towards him. The rest quickly followed with their phones out ready to take a picture.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he looked them with a raised eyebrow questioning their sanity for a moment.

Spencer replied, "We want to capture the look on your face when you take your first bite of pie."

Shay shook his head and found it comical how they awaited with bated breath for him to take a bite out of the pie. Shay shoveled the piece of pie into his mouth and chewed. A moment later he shrugged his shoulders and finishing the morsel he answered, "It's alright; nothing to write home about."

"What?" they all asked in unison lowering their phones.

"I said it's alright?" he asked curiously.

"How can you say it's just alright?" Sam asked indignantly. "It can't just be alright. It is the best pie in the world! I would marry this pie if I could."

He grinned at the blonde. "There are plenty of other pies for you to marry, Samantha. You can do better than this one and it is alright, because it is just that, alright. If they used fresh coconut instead whatever they are using I bet it would taste better. I would think a food connoisseur such as you could taste the artificial coconut flavor. I think it takes away from the pie. If you made this same pie in Hawaii then we would be talking about a great pie or maybe they just aren't as good in making it since Mr. Gallini died."

They continued to look at him in shock, but he shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of pie. "Yeah, it's the artificial flavor. If you think it's the best, there is no point in arguing."

After another bit he called out softly, "Hey, didn't you ask for pie recipes from your viewers one time? I just rewatched the episodes on the flight over here. Maybe one of those makes for a better pie."

"No they don't," the trio answered quickly, but noticed Freddie wasn't as loud or as enthusiastic as Carly and Sam.

"So I was right, but how do you know?"

"We baked them all," Sam answered.

"You're kidding? You tried ever recipe that the viewers sent you and none of them were as good as this to any of you?"

The teenagers shook their head and Spencer made a face.

Shay shrugged his shoulders. "It was probably cheap Seattle ingredients."

"Huh?" Spencer asked.

"Your mom didn't have us move here for the climate or for the culinary arts," Shay offered. "So what did you do with all the pies?"

Sam grinned. "Well, Freddie put one in his face."

"I didn't see that in any of the iCarly episodes."

Carly offered, "It wasn't in a skit. He did it to get his baby cousin Stephanie to smile and laugh at him."

He eyed them each before whispering curiously, "Explain."

Freddie offered an explanation, but was obviously dry in tone and sounded like he didn't want to speak at all, "Stephanie would just give me a blank expression, but laugh at everyone else and I mean everyone else."

Shay noticed immediately that Carly gave Freddie the same look she did at breakfast, but it quickly disappeared as she finished far more enthusiastically, "She finally laughed after Freddie pied himself in the face."

Shay nodded. He thought for a moment before offering a question, "Did you ever think that the baby was just born evil?"

"A baby can not be evil," Carly replied in shock.

Shay chuckled at her daughter's naïveté. "Whatever you say sweetie, but we all Melanie is the evil twin," he replied and scooped another pie piece into his mouth and grinned from ear to ear.

* * *

Pioneer Square  
Seattle, WA

It was a partly cloudy late morning when the group reached the open square market. It was already bustling with people making their rounds through the various vendors with music in the backdrop courtesy of a local DJ. There were a variety of vendors selling locally made clothing, vintage furniture, jewelry, housewares and various other knickknacks. Freddie noticed immediately that Sam dashed off to the food vendors and dragged Spencer with her to probably sponge money off of him.

That just left him and Carly to explore the vendors with Mr. Shay trailing noticeably behind them at a distance and occasionally stopping by a booth. As much as he would usually enjoy being alone with Carly, his thoughts kept going back to last night and the conversation he had with Carly's father.

Freddie had no idea why he brought up the topic of his mother's feelings towards the older Shay. He knew his mother could be quite abrasive towards Spencer at times and her attitude towards Carly had been increasingly negative, especially since the taco truck 'incident'. He usually reserve any comment about it to try and at least minimize the friction between his mother and the Shays, but last night his mother was particularly harsh talking about Mr. Shay and he was curious at what the man had said to her to get her so particularly aggravated. She had ranted a few minutes about how the older Shay would be a bad influence on him and undermined her 'motherly' authority until he told her to stop or he would go right back to the Shays to spend the night.

Surprisingly, his mother had ceased her ranting and mumbled a goodnight. The next thing he realized was that she headed to her room for the night. What was more surprising was what he learned from Mr. Shay about his side of the story. He knew that Carly and Spencer's mother had passed away years ago, but that was about it and it was not a subject ever really broached with him. He respected their wishes not to talk about such a sensitive matter. Obviously to their father, it was a subject to be talked about respectfully and he would tolerate no less.

Even though it was pleasantly in the low seventies, he suddenly felt a chill down to his bones as the thought occurred to him how he would handle life if suddenly Carly was gone like her mother. He pushed that possibility and the related feelings as far down and as hard as he could.

Freddie meant his promise to Carly even if she didn't know about it. He loved his mother, but he would not standby and allow her to use the memory of Carly's mother in a negative way if the opportunity arose. After he told Mr. Shay that, he could have sworn that man had smiled at him before Sam came barreling down the stairs demanding pie.

A question from a sweet voice pulled him back to the present: "Are you alright?"

He turned his head to his right to see Carly's concerned look. "What?"

"I asked if you were alright."

"Just kind of lost in thought," he offered with a shrug.

"You were quiet at breakfast and you barely spoke at Gallini's. What's the matter?"

"It's just—nothing. It's nothing," he offered with a weak voice.

"Oh no, don't give me 'it's nothing'. No secrets, remember?"

Freddie grinned at the pretty brunette. "Ah yes, the promise I made when I was tied up with duct tape and had to placate your jealousy."

"I was not jealous," she defended with feigned outrage.

"And you're not beautiful. Are we going to spend the entire day lying to each other?"

The corner of her mouth upturned and she gave him a playful glare. "What's the matter? Really?"

He decided not to push her for an answer, so he decided to answer her question, "My mom was really upset with your dad last night and I just didn't know how your father would react to me this morning. I hadn't seen her that upset since the taco truck—"

He instantly noticed that Carly's smile faltered at the mention of the taco truck.

Freddie lifted his right hand up. "Hand's not squished anymore." He opened and closed his fist several times. "Fingers work just fine." He wiggled his fingers in her face and drawing out a giggle from Carly. He then lowered his hand down to his side and laced his fingers with hers to hold hands. He gave her a reassuring squeeze with his fingers. "I can even hold someone's hand without a problem."

She looked down at their joined hands for a moment. She looked up and whispered, "Freddie—"

He lifted their joined hands and pressed his lips to the back of her hand and met her gaze. "I told you it wasn't your fault. There's no blame, no regret. I'd do it again. I don't… I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you. Let's just leave it at that, okay?"

Her breath hitched. It took her a few more moments to finally find her voice to reply, "Okay."

Her answer pulled on his heart because she said it the exact same way she did when she answered him about waiting awhile after they broke up. The same tone, the same inflection of the syllables, but he pushed those brought up feelings aside and stated, "I mean it, Carls; don't carry that. Please, for me?"

The brunette's apprehensive look turned into a small smile as he turned the phrase on her. "Yes, for you."

The tech producer returned the smile. "Okay then. Why don't we see what the rest of this place has to offer?"

As soon as the word okay left her mouth they began making their way down the line of vendors. He didn't let go of her hand and she didn't complain.

* * *

Shay couldn't hear what was being exchanged between the two teenagers as he bought a handmade picture frame from a vendor who looked like she had been at Woodstock and forgot to change cloths, but just from years of experience who could tell from their respective body language that what they were talking about was serious. The gestures made by Freddie with his hand was peculiar at first then outright confusing when they young man took his daughter by the hand and then kissed it. He was close enough to see his daughter's laughter, to concerned look which then followed by a smile a few moments later. Finally they just walked off together hand in hand forgetting he wasn't too far behind them.

He snorted out a soft breath and shook his head as he allowed a brief smile. Maybe Freddie wasn't an "ex" after all.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Ooh la la, Shay's on the prowl where Creddie's concerned *gasps* I loved the ending myself with Carly and Freddie walking together and holding hands at Pioneer Square. What do you guys think? I hope you all have a great weekend, cheers!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Hope you all like this one :D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Carly and Freddie walked hand in hand for about fifteen minutes checking out the various vendors until they physically parted ways to try some of the free samples from the variety of food servers. He regretted letting go, but it was a necessity and he thought he caught a glance of regret in Carly's eyes as well.

He was enjoying his finger-food and just watching Carly browse as this or that would catch her eye. He smiled as he realized how nice it was that just doing absolutely nothing really important with Carly was the most important thing he could do with Carly. Just _being_was nice.

Freddie was so lost in thought he didn't notice the Colonel sneak up beside him and nudged Freddie with his elbow then pointed to Carly. "She likes that necklace."

With a curious look, Freddie looked to Shay. The taller man motioned his head as well to his right and Freddie followed his eyes to where Shay was indicating. Carly had moved on from the vendor he last saw her visiting and was now looking at a custom made necklace at another booth and the young lady attending was trying to persuade Carly to purchase it.

As Freddie continued to watch Carly, he asked, "How can you tell?"

"The way she bites her lower lip. Her mother had the same telltale sigh when something caught her eye that she _really_wanted and she didn't ask for much."

Freddie looked at him curiously and wondered why the Colonel would tell him that bit of information.

Shay grinned ever so slightly. "I'm just making conversation," he replied as if he was reading the young man's mind.

Freddie nodded and accepted the explanation. The young man turned his attention back to Carly. Once he finished is last bite, he walked towards her and the booth where the jeweler was still trying to convince Carly that it was the perfect item.

"What are you looking at?" he asked causally.

Carly shook her head. "Oh nothing in particular."

Freddie smirked and turned his attention to the vendor. The blonde looked just a little older than he and Carly; maybe in her first or second year in college. She returned a smile and leaned forward resting her chin on her palm. "Hello."

"Hi," he answered and flashed back a smile. "How much is the purple necklace?" Freddie asked and indicated the necklace Carly was eyeing. It was a silver necklace with a butterfly pendant with purple crystal wings. It looked like someone took great care to make it; maybe a jewelry artist's graded project he guessed.

She grinned and replied, "Usually I'd sell it for fifteen, but for you I could let it go for twelve."

"You would now?"

She nodded and her smile turned to a knowing grin.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer," he answered just as smoothly and reached in his jeans pocket for his wallet. He caught a glance at Carly giving him a perplexed look.

He mouthed to her, "Be cool."

Her eyes may have been shooting daggers, but her upturn corners of her lips said she was anything but annoyed.

Freddie looked back to the vendor and handed her a few bills. She placed the necklace in a small clear bag then handed the receipt to him face down. He saw a phone number and a name scribbled on the back.

"Call me," she whispered.

Freddie suddenly felt an arm loop his around the inside of his elbow joint and pull him away before he could answer the blonde. Carly led him away down a few vendors until they stopped in front of a tall mirror with a variety of sunglass displayed to the right.

He watched with a grin as she carelessly put on one pair after another, not taking any real time to see how they looked on her or speaking a word to him. While she was distracted he reached into the bag to pull out the necklace.

As Carly was putting one of the pair of sunglasses back she asked in a rush, "Why did you buy the necklace?"

He lifted up the necklace by each end and draped it so the butterfly rested just below her neck. He looked straight into the mirror to meet her reflected eyes and whispered in her right ear, "Maybe I just wanted to give a beautiful necklace to a beautiful girl to see her beautiful smile."

He saw the hint of blush on both cheeks as she lowered her eyes, but her smile was instant. She ran her fingertips across the butterfly pendant. Without a word she lifted the back of her hair up and allowed him to fasten the necklace. She lowered her hair back down and for a brief moment he rested a hand on each shoulder. He dropped his hands and rested his chin on her right shoulder.

Freddie just watched her in the mirror just enjoying the moment. Her smile reached her eyes and she was happy and that was enough for him. After only a few moments Carly mouthed, "Thank you."

After a few more moments of peaceful silence Freddie lifted his chin off her shoulder and the two began to walk again checking out more vendors. Freddie glanced back seeing that Mr. Shay was trailing behind them with a casual smile until he heard a familiar male voice shouting out: "Hey Carly, Freddie!"

The pair turned their attention to the owner to see Gibby, Guppy and their Grandfather approaching.

"What's up? What are you doing here?" Gibby asked them.

Carly looked over her shoulder and motioned with her head. "My dad's home for a visit and we're just out."

Shay noticed the three males approach his daughter and Freddie and quickly caught up.

"Hey dad, I want you to meet some someone. This is Mr. Gibson," Carly directed to the older gentleman.

"Colonel Shay," he acknowledged to the older gentleman with an outstretched hand.

He noticed that the older gentleman missed his outstretched hand so with his left he gently grabbed Grandpa Gibson's wrist and allowed his other hand to complete the handshake.

"A colonel? Oak leaf or Bird?" he asked roughly, not quite meeting his eyes.

"Bird, US Air Force."

He chuckled, "A fly boy."

"Used to be," he gently corrected with a smile.

Carly spoke up, "This is Gibby and his young brother Guppy."

Shay turned his attention to the teenager and smiled cautiously. "Ah yes, the one that has the tendency of taking off his shirt."

"This is my father, not Spencer," Carly pointed out to Gibby.

Shay looked at his daughter with a perplexed look. "He thought Spencer was your dad?"

He then looked to Gibby who let out a soft laugh and shook his head. "What? You thought my son had her at _twelve_?"

It looked to Shay that Gibby put on a good humor smile before rolling his eyes.

"I need to sit down!" the oldest Gibson suddenly shouted grabbing everyone's attention.

"Grandpa, we just got here," Gibby pointed out.

Shay suggested, "You kids keep having fun. We're going to sit down for a moment."

He led the elderly Gibson to a bench and took a seat beside him.

"So, Air Force huh? Army myself. You've seen a lot of action?" he asked Shay once he was seated to his comfort.

Shay smiled that the old war vet. "You could say that. I flew F-Fifteens in the first Gulf War, patrolled the No Fly Zone after that, then Kosovo, been to Afghanistan and Iraq as a Combat Controller with my former wingman Roger. So yeah, I've seen action in four wars, well five if you want to count the closing days of the Cold War. I do miss the Soviets at times. It was simpler back then: Us versus the 'Evil Empire'."

"You got that right son, but two wars were enough for me."

Shay chuckled. "I hear you. So, World War Two and Korea?"

"Yep, but I got out of Korea by getting shot."

Shay shook his head. "You alright though?"

"Yeah yeah, they fixed all the plumping. I kind of had some loving care from a nice local girl before they shipped me back if you know what I mean. Just don't mention it to my wife." Grandpa Gibson started to laugh and patted Shay's knee. "Anything like that happen to you?"

Shay joined in the laughter. "I hear what you're saying, pops. I'll tell you a story: it was back in the beginning of the first Gulf War and just a few months short of my twenty-eighth birthday. I met this very lovely young lady when we were both stationed in Saudi Arabia. We were the same age and she just got done with her flight surgeon training and it was her first assignment and we were both a long way from home if you get my meaning."

The Gibson patriarch laughed. "So she was pretty?"

Shay continued, "Oh yes, she was beautiful with dark hair and a smile that would make your heart go pitter-patter."

Grandpa Gibson smiled knowingly. "So whatcha do?"

He leaned in to have a conspiratorial whisper, "_Nothing_, you pathetic excuse for a man. I loved my wife and I would have rather died than to have betrayed her. I could understand and even sympathize with you under certain circumstances, but you are not one those who had some moment of weakness when you were going through Hell and regretted it later. It has been nearly sixty _years_and you sound as if you have no regret or remorse for what you did to your wife and you treat your wedding vows as some kind of joke. For all you know you may have children and grandchildren back in South Korea. Maybe the only decent thing is that your wife doesn't know that as she was waiting for you and praying that you'd come back to her alive instead of in a box, you had no problem being with someone else."

Gibby's grandfather pulled back and the joyful expression was replaced with a harsh and annoyed look.

He shouted, "Gibby! Let's go." He got up and Shay glared at the old man and didn't hide any of the disgust he felt towards the patriarchal Gibson.

Shay was surprised at how fast the old man could move and Gibby following him. The last thing he heard was Gibby peppering his grandfather with questions.

Carly and Freddie walked to him pretty quickly with Carly asking in a clipped tone, "What did you say to him?"

Shay shrugged his shoulders. "The truth, I guess he didn't care for it." He then took a good look at her and said with an upbeat tone. "Hey, that's a real pretty necklace."

* * *

**Author's Note: Ooh wee, Steven got Mr. Gibson good ;D Have a great weekend, cheers!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: More Steven greatness - enjoy :D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Chapter 8

"Don't 'that's a real pretty necklace' with me, answer me," Carly stated hotly.

Shay wanted to smile at Carly's exacerbated demeanor, but he knew it would give her the wrong impression of what he thought if he was about to tell her the truth.

"I don't want to spoil your day cupcake."

"You're not going to 'spoil' my day. Just tell me what happened."

Shay let out a tired breath. "Mr. Benson, would you give us a moment."

The young man and Carly traded looks for a moment before she nodded her head. Freddie relented, but the look on his face showed he didn't like having to leave Carly and Shay watched the tech producer lazily walk away, but keeping a comfortable distance.

"So are you going to tell me?"

Shay turned his attention back to his daughter and patted the seat beside him and she took it.

"Sweetie, it's a nice day, as defined by Seattle standards, you had your favorite pie this morning, you're out having a good day with your friend—friends and I'm not going to screw it up by repeating what he said to me and what I said back. If you really want to know, I'll tell you and Spencer when we get home, but not here and not in the company of others."

"Dad—"

Shay grinned. "You're not going to win this argument kiddo. Just go enjoy your day and let tomorrow worry about itself. If your friend gets upset tell him to come see me about it, not pester you with it."

Carly gave him a pitiful look in what he assumed was an attempt to get him to relent. He leaned in and whispered, "Your mother was better at that. The answer is still no."

She huffed out and crossed her arms, "Fine."

Shay gave her another smile and waved her off. "Good, now go have fun with your friend."

Freddie watched Carly approach him with a slightly disappointed look. He didn't know if he should be worried or not.

"Did he tell you what happened?" he asked as soon as she was close enough to whisper to her.

"No, he said if I wanted to know he'd tell me and Spencer when we got home. Didn't 'want to spoil my day' he said," she told him in a tone that hinted at her being somewhat annoyed.

"If he thinks it will upset you now, what's the harm in waiting? You can't chase Gibby down and how long could he really stay mad if he was?" he tried comforting her with a reasonable suggestion.

"Remember Tasha?" she asked then giggled.

"I highly doubt Gibby would want to get into a fist fight with you. Besides, he'd have to deal with me first," Freddie said almost laughing.

"Oh, you'd fight him this time?" she asked with a smile and from what he could tell a hint of disbelief in her voice.

The smile left his face and spoke in a serious tone, "I'd fight anyone that would try and hurt you. Sam's just the one that usually jumps in before I can."

It was the second time in less than an hour that it looked to Freddie that Carly was at a lost for words as she stared at him.

"Enough about that, let's just enjoy today. Please?" he asked directing a puppy dog look at her.

The question seemed to snap Carly out of her stare. She nodded to him and gave him a small smile. "Okay," she answered in a soft, sweet voice.

About half an hour later everyone met back up to grab lunch from a vendor and found a table in Occasional Park just outside of the vendors' area.

Shay smiled noticing that Sam wasn't eating anything because apparently she was full. He wondered if she had tried something from every food vendor. He guessed yes by seeing Spencer's annoyed look as he looked at the vegged out blonde. She probably made his boy pay for everything.

The Colonel noticed the large bag that Spencer brought with him to the table. "What did you get son?"

Spencer shrugged. "Oh, you know just some things I could use for my art."

Shay nodded. "Your hobby?"

"Yes—my hobby, my art hobby," Spencer replied cautiously.

Shay grinned and shook his head. "Samantha, have you enjoyed yourself?"

Sam nodded, but not quite focusing on anything particular. "Mama looooved the organic ice cream."

"She loved mine too," Spencer commented dryly eyeing the blond to the point of near glaring. The artist looked to his father. "What did you get dad?"

Shay lifted up his small bag unto the table. "I found a homemade picture frame. I think whoever made it did a really good job with it; it's pretty."

Spencer commented to Carly between bites of his food, "You look like you found something nice, that's a pretty necklace."

Carly reached up and grabbed the pendant between her pointer finger and thumb. She smiled brightly as she answered, "Yeah, Freddie got it for me."

Shay noticed the peculiar look that Sam gave Carly as she asked, "He did now?" She turned her attention to Freddie and arched an eyebrow at him. "Aren't you being a little desperate Freddimondo?"

Freddie cocked his head to the side and glared at the blond.

"In what?" Shay asked making sure his voice made it sound like an innocent question.

Sam blinked and he noticed the odd look she was giving him. He glanced at the tech producer who suddenly looked nervous and took great interest in his food. His daughter was giving him a pretty neutral look which he knew meant she was trying to bury her feeling and opinion.

"You know," Sam spoke to him as if that answered his question.

"Know what?" he asked giving Sam a perplexed look.

"Trying to get Carly to love him."

Shay took a sip of his soda from the straw, but the sound of an empty drink rattled the ice in the bottom of the paper cup. He took the straw and poked the bottom trying to get past the ice in the hopes of getting the last drop of his soda as he casually spoke, but not looking up from his cup, "Mmm… interesting."

Shay watched from the corner of his eye as Sam looked dumbfounded.

"Wait, interesting? That's all you have to say?"

Shay heard the satisfying sound of the straw punching through the glob of ice and took his last sip from the drink. He then looked up at Sam and gave her a small smile, "Samantha, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

The girl looked even more lost. "What is that suppose to mean?"

Shay gave a light chuckle. "It means that there doesn't have to be deeper meaning. Maybe he just wanted to give something nice to Carly, because she is his friend. Unless of course I'm wrong," Shay finished and with a grin on his face looked to Freddie.

Freddie met his eyes for a moment then hurriedly looked down at his food. Carly looked just as nervous to Shay as she turned back to her food.

"So," Shay clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Any ideas how we can spend the rest of this somewhat beautiful afternoon?"

"Sleep," Sam suggested as she looked like she was about to doze off propped up with her elbow on the table.

Carly lifted her head from her food and excitedly suggested, "Why don't we go to the Seattle Art Museum? You can show dad your Bottlebot."

Spencer took a sharp intake of breath.

Shay asked in disbelief, "You have something in the SAM?"

"What?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Not you, the Seattle Art Museum. That's what it's called: SAM," Shay explained then looked back to Spencer.

"Yeah," Spencer nodded hesitantly.

"Really?" Shay asked with a hint of disbelief.

Carly answered with her excitement building, "Yes he does."

"Your mother would be ecstatic. We have to go," Shay stated cheerfully.

"Ewww, it's like school. I'd rather sleep," Sam complained.

"You can nap when we get home. You can stand going for a few minutes; I'll fix you night breakfast with extra bacon."

"Okay, I'm in," Sam shouted wide awake.

Shay chuckled to himself and shook his head.

As the group was heading to Spencer's SUV, Freddie called out, "Carly?"

The brunette turned and stopped to face him. He stopped in his tracks as well as the rest continued on. "What Sam said—Carly, I—" he stopped when he met those brown eyes that just seemed to still his heart and silence what he wanted to say.

"Yes," she prodded softly with the softest tough to his exposed forearm.

He was thankful for the little push she gave him that gave him the courage to continue. "I didn't get you the necklace because of any ulterior motive." He swallowed down nervousness. "I meant what I said."

She gave him small smile. "I know. You've always meant what you have said to me."

He returned with a big grin.

* * *

**Author's Note: Aww, more Creddie cukeyness. I hope you all liked this, please please review. Have a great weekend, cheers!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! How are you all this week? I hope you all like this week's offerings from OneHorseShay. These two chapters are some of my favourites from the entire series, lots of writing gems and food for thought. Enjoy :D **

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

SAM (Seattle Art Museum) Downtown  
1300 First Avenue  
Seattle, WA

It had been a little more than ten years since Steven Shay had stepped foot in this place and it brought back bittersweet memories. There had been some remodeling to the place, but not enough to make him feel as if he would need the assistance of a map to make is way through the museum.

"So is the Contemporary Art still on the third floor?" he asked Spencer as the younger Shay led the way.

"Yes, but," Spencer pointed out raising a finger, "we are going to the fourth floor."

"Why? Isn't that still European and African art?"

"Yes, _but_it is also where my exhibit is in the Special Exhibition Gallery."

Shay laughed heartily and patted his son on the shoulder. "Oh that's my boy."

After several escalator trips, they reached the fourth floor with Spencer eagerly leading the way. Once they reached the Special Exhibition Gallery, Spencer threw out his arms to display his sculpture like a model would show off a car or such other thing. "So what do you think?"

"Wow, Spencer… the Bottlebot… the original one," Shay stated in a dry tone. He darted his eyes between Spencer and the green soda man.

Spencer's face fell at the sound of his father's words. "You're disappointed?"

"No, I—I'm just surprised it is one of your early works. I thought it was a newer Bottlebot or something else I hadn't seen since you're working on that new piece now."

"Well… I've been busy and… I wasn't happy with any other piece."

Shay nodded in understanding then replied, "Law School does monopolize your time. Have you ever thought that Law School isn't for you?"

"What?" Spencer asked with an apparent look of surprise.

"I mean that your heart isn't in it. Maybe you'd be happier doing something else?"

Spencer laughed nervously. "I haven't given it much thought."

Shay nodded his head and looked down to the floor for a moment before looking back to his son. "You might want to do that. You don't want to look back years from now and wish you would have done something else with your life."

"Sure, dad, I will," Spencer replied in a tone and demeanor that suggested to Shay that his son was relieved.

"Can we go now?" Sam asked tersely.

Shay turned to the blond with a raised eyebrow.

"Well you promised me bacon."

"Tonight, not this afternoon; patience will get you far."

Sam made a face and mumbled to herself.

Shay gave her a stern look. "Don't give me that face, young lady. I haven't gone back on my word, so don't get smart with me. I expect you not to go back on yours about behaving yourself."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yes, sir."

"I'll get you a fatcake shake on our way home," he relented. "You need something to wash the bacon down."

Sam immediately grinned.

Freddie and Carly were standing a few feet back from the rest and the brunette young man whispered to Carly, "Do you think Spencer's going to tell your dad he dropped out of law school?"

He didn't realize how close he was standing when he whispered as Carly and his noses nearly bumped when she turned her head to look at him. Each slightly pulled back and Freddie noticed the same blush forming on her cheeks as when he gave her the necklace. She whispered, "I doubt it. Spencer hasn't told him in four years."

"Before I talked with your dad, he suggested that Spencer go study for his classes to get him to go to his room. I'm not sure how long he's going to be able to fool your dad. How is Spencer going to fake going to law classes?"

"Oh."

"Yeah. Do you think your dad will be mad?"

Carly shrugged her shoulders; her left one rubbing against his right shoulder. "Maybe, probably. I'm not sure which he'd be mad over the most: that Spencer dropped out or that he didn't tell him."

They both looked back to the group and Freddie immediately realized that Mr. Shay was looking at the pair. It was a pretty neutral expression from what Freddie could tell then the Colonel spoke causally, "Come on, you two, we're heading home."

Freddie noticed Sam smirk at him as Carly answered her father hesitantly, "Okay, dad."

* * *

Shay Apartment

It was just after sundown when Shay found himself back at the stove cooking breakfast for the second time today. He was keeping his word about making Sam extra bacon despite knowing that Sam wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he didn't. Even while he was doing it she wasn't letting him hear the end of it.

"I want bacon."

"It's cooking as fast as it can. You will just have to be patient," Shay called back out as the bacon continued to fry on the pan.

"I don't like being patient."

"It is a virtue you need to learn. You'll be happier when you do."

A few moments later the bacon was done along with some eggs on another pan. Shay racked the eggs and bacon onto her plate, which she immediately dug into as if she was afraid someone would take it off her plate.

Shay heard a knock from the apartment door as he was cleaning up. He heard Carly say from the door, "Hey, Gibby." He split his attention from his task and Carly at the door.

"Hi, Carly," he greeted as she allowed him inside.

Freddie and Spencer called out their respective greetings from the kitchen counter and sofa, respectfully.

Shay walked into the living room, none too thrilled with their guess.

"Hi, Mr. Shay."

"_Colonel_Shay," he corrected not too gently.

"Colonel Shay," Gibby parroted.

"Do you have some business in my home, Gibby? Or are you here to 'hang' as one might say?"

"My mom wanted to tell you that my granddad is pretty upset with you."

"Then why isn't she here to tell me herself?"

"She didn't want to come up here."

"Ah," he replied simply. Shay looked to his son. "She wasn't good enough for you anyway."

"Hey!" Gibby shouted.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm a father; I don't think anyone is good enough for my children. You're going to have the same feeling when you have kids." He then called back behind his shoulder, "'Anybody' doesn't include you, Mr. Benson." Shay could just imagine what could be going through the poor boy's mind about what he just said.

"Now, Gibby, you tell your grandfather to get in line. Marissa Benson is ahead of him, though."

Carly looked at him with an annoyed glare and set jaw. "That's it. Are you finally going to tell me what you said?"

Spencer got up from the sofa. "What's going on?" Spencer asked as his head and eyes darted between his father and Gibby.

Before Shay could reply, Carly jumped in: "We met up with Gibby, Guppy and their Grandfather at the Square and dad and him talked, then Mr. Gibson walked off mad."

"You have got to remember to breathe, sweetie. I don't want you to have an asthma attack," Shay commented in a serious tone. He knew she hadn't had one since she was seven, but he didn't disregard the possibility of one happening in the future.

"What did you two talk about?" Spencer asked looking like he was still trying to get a handle on what was going on.

Shay looked to both his children for a moment before relenting. "He told me that he cheated on his wife in Korea during the war and asked if I had the opportunity to cheat on your mother during any of my deployments. He thought it was funny and no big deal about his actions."

Carly took in a sharp breath and looked at him wide eyed. It was the exact reaction that he was trying to avoid. Spencer simply blinked at him.

"I answered him no and then told him what a pathetic man he is for doing that to his wife because he has felt no remorse in his actions."

Gibby spoke up with a hint of nervousness, "You shouldn't have said that to him."

"Why? Why shouldn't I tell him his behavior is wrong when he had the nerve to insinuate that I would condone it or worse, practice it? I don't believe that you understand how offensive that is to say to someone."

He didn't allow Gibby to reply. "Mr. Benson?" he called out and turned to the young man standing on the other side of the counter.

"During those few days you dated my daughter, would you have cheated on her?"

Freddie's nervous look at being called out in such a tone turned to a look of anger. "No, sir, I would never cheat on Carly," Shay heard Freddie reply with barely checked rage.

Shay looked back at Gibby. "It looks like Mr. Benson over there empathizes with what I felt after what your grandfather said to me. He looks like he's ready to slug me just for daring to ask the question and if you would have suggested such a thing to him in regards to his brief relationship with my daughter instead of suggesting he would go behind your back with 'Sasha'—"

"Tasha," Gibby corrected.

"Tasha, he would have creamed you in that fight you wanted with him on iCarly. You should count your blessings that he's the bigger man."

Sam started, "He's not exactly the bigger—"

"This is not the time or the place for one of your jokes, young lady. Not with me and this subject," Shay snapped back. He could almost hear Sam clamping her mouth shut.

"Yeah, but still—" Gibby began.

"Still what, young man?" he asked, knowing his patients was running thin.

"He's home crying. Have you seen an old person cry? It isn't as funny as you think."

"Yes I have: my father-in-law when he and I were burying his daughter that I was faithful to everyday I had with her."

Gibby wouldn't or couldn't meet his cold stare. Gibby looked to Carly. "My mom's waiting for me. I'll see you guys later."

Carly nodded. "Sure, Gib," she whispered in a distracted tone from what Shay could tell.

"Later," Freddie and Sam called out from behind Shay as Gibby exited the apartment.

"Gibby," Shay called out.

Gibby turned just as he was past the threshold to the hallway.

"Yes, sir?"

"It's Mr. Shay for you."

Gibby waved them all bye and smiled.

Once the door was shut, Shay let out a sigh and let his shoulders slump. He palmed his forehead with his right hand and looked down. He felt a hand give him a comfortable squeeze on his left shoulder. He looked up to see Spencer giving him a warm smile. "It's okay, dad." The Colonel patted his son's shoulder with his right hand. "Thanks."

Shay then looked around the group. "Well, I don't think I'm going to be much company. I think I'll head up to my room for the evening if anyone needs me."

* * *

It was about an hour later when Freddie followed Carly up to her room to retrieve her laptop since Sam had decided to hog the living room computer to watch videos from TheSlap and Spencer was watching the Boat Channel.

He suddenly felt concerned when Carly just stopped as she passed her bed and stared at her bedside table. Freddie did notice something new sitting on it. There was a brown picture frame with a sculptured lavender flower in the right side corner. Carly picked it up and stared at the picture. He grew more concerned when she sat on her bed still holding the picture frame.

"Carly?" Freddie asked in a hushed tone.

Carly looked up from the picture with a small smile and Freddie could see moisture threatening to fall from her eyes. "It's my mom."

Freddie took the few steps up to her bed a seat beside her and Carly leaned into his shoulder to show him the picture. He looked at the brunette young woman smiling from the picture. Freddie could see where Carly had gotten her nose and beautiful eyes. He smiled briefly and looked up at her, their noses just centimeters apart. She looked back up to meet his eyes.

"Your mother is very beautiful," he whispered.

A hint of a smile played on her lips for the briefest of moments. "Thank you."

He didn't know why he did it, maybe just out of instinct; he lifted his left forefinger to catch the moister from her left eye before it fell. Freddie just smiled at her softly. She returned the smile then rested her head on his shoulder as the two of them looked at the picture.

Someone clearing their throat caught both teens by surprise and looked up.

Mr. Shay was standing at the entrance to the bedroom. "I'm sorry to interrupt," Shay stated in what Freddie could only describe as a bashful tone; which he found hard to believe could come from Mr. Shay.

"I noticed that there weren't any pictures of your mom. I felt that I needed to correct that… oversight?" he asked hesitantly.

Carly lifted her head off of Freddie's shoulder. "I lost all of mine in the fire," she replied as she wiped her other eye clean of unshed tears.

Shay nodded and smiling understandingly. He then looked to Freddie.

"Could you give us a few minutes, Mr. Benson?"

"Of course, Mr. Shay," he answered casually then looked at Carly as if asking her permission to leave. She smiled at him then he stood up from the bed. He walked out of the bedroom and pulled the door shut behind him.

Shay walked up to take the spot Freddie was sitting just moments ago, but not as close. "Do you like it?"

Carly nodded. "Thank you."

Shay then glanced at the shut door wondering if Freddie was on the other side or decided to go downstairs. If Freddie heard what he was about to say then so be it.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here, sweetie, but… I think Freddie still likes you." He then shrugged his shoulders. "It just might be my imagination. Well, goodnight."

He stood up and walked down the few steps towards the bedroom door.

"Dad?"

He stopped at the threshold of the door and turned slightly to face Carly. "Yeah, sweetie?"

"What do you think about Freddie?"

He just grinned at his daughter. "I'll let you know." He then turned and left the room pulling the door shut behind him.

* * *

**Author's Note: Aww, wasn't this new update just precious? I don't know about you guys, but I love that Steven speaks his mind no matter what, and that goes both ways for every situation. I'm glad that he was nice to Gibby again and didn't treat him badly just because of his grandpa. Plus, there's nothing like a little cukey Creddie to end off the chapter on a high :) Now onto more writing goodness!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Some more writing gold from OneHorseShay. I'd totally be green with envy if I didn't love this story so much :D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Shay pulled up to the front of Ridgeway High in Spencer's SUV at about 7:50 am Monday morning. The three teenagers quickly exited the vehicle. Shay called out and looked through the rolled down passenger seat window to Carly, "Remember, I'll be picking you up."

Carly turned back to lean into the passenger side window. "Sure thing, dad. Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie."

Shay watched the three teens enter the front entrance then pulled away to get back to the apartment so Spencer could get to his law classes.

* * *

Shay Apartment  
Monday, September 2011

"I'm back, Spencer," Shay called out as he push back the door to swing close. He tossed the keys to Spencer who eagerly caught them.

"Great, I guess I'm off to law class," Spencer shouted in chipper tone as he dashed past his father and towards the door.

"Are you really going to walk out that door and pretend to go to some law class?"

Spencer stopped in his tracks and his shoulders slumped.

"We need to talk, son, and we need to do it now."

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"

Shay eyed him with a furled brow. "Really, Spence? Are we really going to do this?"

Spencer just looked at him with a dumbfounded look.

Shay threw out his hands. "Fine, have it your way. We'll start with the conversation I promise we'd have: spending money that doesn't belong to you." Shay approached his obviously nervous son. "It was so easy to be generous on her room wasn't it? You thought it was free money, but it wasn't. I'm the one that kept up the insurance payments and the watch belonged to Carly. Your mother gave it to her, so it was your sister's money. You had no right to that money," he finished in a stern tone.

"I had to spend it. You didn't see how bad it was or what it did to Carly."

"So that justified taking your sister's money in an attempt to ease your guilt?"

"It was my fault and—"

Shay took a step closer to his son. "You're damn right it was your fault! You know you stink at anything electrical."

"How was I supposed to know that could happen?"

Shay let out a hollowed chuckle. "Yes, Spencer, how could you have possibly known that sticky soft gummy bears could actually melt under the heat of an incandescent light bulb?"

"I didn't think—"

"That's always been your problem, Spencer: you never think about the possible consequences of your actions."

Shay sighed and shook his head as he started pacing the living room. He looked all the knickknacks and other odds and ends pieces of art that decorated the room. He looked back at Spencer. "Why didn't you just pay for it out of your own pocket?"

"I couldn't afford that."

"You couldn't afford it? Here's a thought: how about you stop half-assing your art? then you'd have had the money to fix your screw-up."

Spencer shouted back harshly, "I don't half-ass my art!"

Shay knew he hit one of Spencer's buttons, but he pressed on. "Oh yes you do. Your yo-yo tree, your elephant cycle, your Christmas Tree full of noses-"

"Merry Sniffmas," he offered in a cheerful tone momentarily breaking his defensive stance.

"Your mother would think that's borderline blasphemy right there, but I should be grateful you're not sticking crucifixes in jars of urine and calling it art. Oh my God, she would roll over in her grave if you did that."

Spencer reeled back at the insult, but apparently found his courage and asked, "Why can't you just support me?"

"Support you?" Shay asked with a nod. He threw his head back and shouted sarcastically, "Ha."

He looked back at Spencer and continued, "You mean letting you stay here for free, paying all the utilities, most of the food and some of the clothes on your back doesn't count as supporting you? In less than two months you're going to be thirty for God sakes! You don't have to be like every other struggling artist that actually has to get a day job to feed and cloths themselves, you know, like your mom did when we were working our way through college while taking care of you 'til you were four. Maybe you're right; I'm just not supporting you enough."

Spencer swallowed down the lump caught in his throat as his father continued. "If your mother was living, she'd whoop you worst than she did after that garlic powder prank you pulled when you were fourteen. She'd be just as upset as I that you weren't pouring your heart and soul into your art. And don't you dare say you don't have as much talent as your mother did as an excuse because even these half-assed attempts at art make that so-called master pop artist Joyner look like a rank amateur. You remember? The grandmaster himself was so threatened by your talent he had to trick you to give it up."

"How did you find out about that?"

Shay shook his head. "E-mail. Carly displaying your art on an iCarly episode. Having that nut of a woman check on Carly in the afternoon because you decided to be a dental assistant. Worst day of your life, Carly wrote me. You'd think your mother dying would rank a little higher than someone not liking your art." He just looked at his son trying to keep the disgust off of his face.

"Okay, I was being a little dramatic, but he said my artwork was amateurish and that was coming from my idol."

"Using you as the measuring stick and with what I know you're capable of doing, it is amateurish. His motivations for telling you that were deceptive, but that didn't make what he said any less true. You could do better than your mom."

"How can you say that? Mom was the best."

Shay looked at Spencer as if he had just grown a second head. "Wh—why do you find it so hard to believe that she would want you to surpass her? The woman had no ego. It drove me nuts at times."

Shay let out a breath and shook his head. "Why did you spend four years at college on a political science degree you knew you were never going to use? Why didn't you just tell me you didn't want to go to law school? Why didn't you just tell me you dropped out after three days? Why didn't you just tell me you wanted to be an artist?"

"Did Grandpa tell you?"

"The old man knew?" Shay asked in disbelief. "Of course he did…" Shay answered himself in mild annoyance. "Did he blackmail you?"

Spencer rolled his eyes. "I told him that I'd go back to law school if I didn't have a piece of work in the museum within three years."

"That's why it's the Bottlebot in there?"

"Yeah, time caught up with me and it was the easiest to get in."

"Like I said: half-assing. Do you know what pisses me off the most about all of this?"

Spencer shook his head.

"I had to find out from the school when they sent me the refund for the semester I paid for instead of my son just telling me himself." Shay held up his four fingers of his right hand. "Four years, Spencer, four _years_and you couldn't find a way to tell me?"

"I didn't want to disappoint you. I already had grandpa upset and disappointed in me. I'm sorry, not all of us can be super cool fighter pilots and Special Forces dudes like you and Uncle Roger did."

Shay slapped his hand to his forehead then looked straight at him. "You didn't have to! That's the point I'm trying to make! I just want you to be happy at what you do! You want to follow in your mother's footsteps and be an artist, then be an artist. The only wish I have is that if you're going to do it, then do it, not goof off with it. Unless you're doing it for some contract, then _be_great at it and I know your mother would want you to be great at it. I can't even imagine how much beauty and joy you bring to the world if you would just let it show in your art and just be great."

Shay caught his breath and continued, "Oh, and the next time your grandfather wants a say in your future, tell him to go do something that is anatomically impossible to himself."

Spencer was apparently shocked at his father's suggestion on dealing with his grandfather. "You can't seriously want me to tell him that?"

"Yes I am. He tried to put that same bullshit guilt on me and that is the reason why I hate the old man: he always, always thinks he knows better and can run other people's lives better than they can. You're better off going to law school and becoming a lawyer, Carly would love living in Yakama. Steven, don't marry her. Don't join the Air Force ROTC. On and on and on he would go and still goes on. He always thinks he knows best."

"He told you not to marry mom?"

Shay closed his eyes and shook his head and let out a breath. He cleared his throat and mimicked his father: "You're just both eighteen. You're too young. You shouldn't tie yourself down. She's abnormal. All the Dorfmans are freaks." He then spoke in his normal voice: "Just one of many decisions we disagreed on." He looked back up at Spencer and reached to grab each of his shoulders. "My son, I just want you to be happy. That's all. I don't think that's too much to ask from you."

Spencer smiled at him. "Thanks, dad."

Shay nodded and let his hands drop. "But there is one other thing you are going to do: You are going to pay your sister back every dime that you stole from her."

"I didn't—"

"You take something that does not belong to you that is stealing. I know you had the best intentions to fix her room, but you should have used your own money to fix it or you could have just asked me to borrow the money. She could have used it to buy a car and pay for some of her college depending on where she wanted to go. I'm not going to let you off the hook with this, Spencer. I know exactly what Carly would say: don't worry about it, you don't have to pay me back, all's forgiven, you're the best big brother in the world and all that other nonsense. You're not going to do it because I could beat into the ground or any other thing I could do to you like cut you out of your inheritance. You're going to do it for one reason and one reason only."

Shay saw the look of fear in his son's eyes. "And what's that?"

"So you can look yourself in the mirror and say you kept the promise you made to your sister when you were twelve. I know you remember that promise. That is why you are going to pay her back."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, now," Shay turned to look at the metal sculpture still dominating the living room, "this thing isn't going to finish itself. Do you want me to run to some electrical store?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Didn't I tell you these new updates were full of win? You can't make this stuff up ;D I loved Spencer and Steven's conversation/confrontation. Amazing dialogue on the whole and a great recalling of some of the Shay's past concerning the late Mrs. Shay. And now that you're done reading this gold, please spare me a teensie moment and read my humble works, pwetty please? Have a great weekend, cheers!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you're all had a great week. On behalf of OneHorseShay, I'd like to thank everyone who's been reviewing, favouriting and putting this story on alert, he really appreciates it. Even though I said this right from the beginning, I'd like to reiterate it once more. If anyone has any questions related to this story and/or the characters at any time, please don't hesitate to send me a PM. I will let OneHorseShay know and he will be happy to answer your questions. Now without further ado, these two new updates are gonna knock your socks off if you already love this story :D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Ridgeway High School  
Seattle, Washington  
Monday, September 2011

Freddie was finishing up at his locker getting ready to head out to meet Carly and Sam waiting outside when he noticed Adam walking by him.

"Hey, Adam," Freddie called out as he stood up and locked up his locker.

The slightly taller teen turned around to see who called him. Freddie saw the annoyed look on his face, but pointedly ignored it. "Do you have a sec?"

"What do you want?" Adam asked with a hint of impatience.

"You haven't asked Carly out and I was wondering why." Freddie surprised himself with his own straightforwardness towards Adam.

"Why do you care? You're dating her."

Freddie sighed and shook his head. "Like I said at WebiCon, we're not dating. Just ask her out; I know she'll say yes." He thought he would choke on those words, but he got them out anyway.

"You expect me to believe that after what happened at WebiCon?"

"You're the one that walked out after Sam's stunt. Here's an idea: you could have believed Carly. Did it ever occur to you to just believe that Sam was lying just to mess with people? How can you go to this school and not know Sam's reputation?"

"So you're not 'deeply in love' with Carly?"

Freddie bit his tongue quickly. He took a calming breath, but before he could reply, Adam was quicker to supply his own answer, "So Sam's right."

"It doesn't matter what I feel. Carly is interested in you and you were obviously interested in her."

"That was before I was nearly lynched by those crazy Creddies."

"We have over a million fans; you can't judge them by the actions of what, forty people at most." Freddie shook his head. "Why do you keep judging Carly for _other_people's actions?"

"Because they obviously know something neither one of you are willing to admit."

"I've never denied that I love Carly. It's a bad running joke about how she doesn't love me that way. She's not interested in me. She's interested in you."

"Sorry, I'm not going to be fooled by her manipulative ways when she has you as back up. Or are you two in on it or what? How many guys have you had her try to string along—"

Adam didn't finish as Freddie shoved him hard and Adam's back rattled the lockers behind him from the impact. Adam was surprised, but Freddie was just mad.

Mr. Howard came storming up to the two of them and the students still lingering in the halls before hearing the dismissal bell.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Howard demanded.

* * *

"Let's just leave the nub and go," Sam demanded from the backseat of the SUV.

Carly shook her head and without looking back from the passenger seat replied, "We are not leaving Freddie."

Shay unbuckled his seatbelt. "I'm going to go find him. And don't you dare steal this vehicle, Samantha," he instructed the blonde.

"Fine," she replied with a roll of her eyes.

* * *

"I told you, no one cares what you think," Mr. Howard snapped at Freddie.

"I care what he thinks," Shay's voiced called out behind Mr. Howard.

The school teacher turned to face the stern face Colonel just several feet away.

Freddie watched as Mr. Howard flinched for a moment from the Colonel's glare. He also watched as they had gained an impromptu audience from the students still in the halls.

"Mr. Howard, I haven't had the displeasure," the statement rolled off Shay's tongue like just speaking left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Colonel," Shay said emphasizing his title, "Steven Shay, US Air Force. I'm Carlotta Shay's father." He turned to look to Freddie and asked, "What's going on, Mr. Benson?"

Mr. Howard began, "I was just—"

"I didn't ask what you thought, so keep your opinions to yourself until I ask for them," the field grade officer snapped at the balding teacher.

"Adam and I are just having a little disagreement; that's all," Freddie replied cautiously even though Mr. Shay was cowing Mr. Howard for the moment.

"Disagreement? That must be some disagreement that you two must be having if you look like you are ready to take his head off," Shay commented in a dry tone. Freddie watched as the Colonel turned his attention to Adam.

It was a dismissive tone from what Freddie heard from Shay as he asked, "So you're Adam?" The way the Colonel was looking at Adam, it didn't appear to Freddie that Shay was too impressed with the teenager. His opinion was confirmed to his satisfaction as Shay began to speak again, "Tell me, _boy,_why Mr. Benson feels he must take such action against you?"

Adam eyed Freddie and he met Adam's stare just as coldly, almost daring the teenager to repeat what he said about Carly.

"I'm not sure."

"I'm not sure, _sir_. Do you think I'm stupid or are you just too much of a coward to repeat what you said to Mr. Benson?"

Adam kept his mouth shut as he looked back to Freddie then to Mr. Howard and finally back to Shay.

"Coward it is then," Shay answered with a look disdain towards Adam. "Let's go, Mr. Benson."

Almost babbling, Mr. Howard began, "Wait just one moment—"

Shay turned and stood just inches from Mr. Howard, staring down the obviously frightened man. "For what?"

"He can't just walk away. I can't just let him cause trouble."

"Trouble? You must think I'm as stupid as that little boy does," Shay replied and pointed at Adam. "I know who you are, Howard. My daughter has written me obviously edited stories of you harassing her for the last four years. That is a debt you are going to settle up with me. I could start now, but do you really want me to do that?"

Mr. Howard swallowed nervously at Shay's unnerving gaze. "No."

"No, _sir_."

"No sir," Mr. Howard echoed.

"Good, now we're leaving and you can tell that 'weak spineless fool' of a principal, as you refer to him as, if he has a problem with Mr. Benson, he is to call the Shay residence and ask to speak with me personally. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, because if I find out you or Franklin has gone behind my back… well let's just put it this way: I am not weak or spineless and I am certainly no fool." He turned to Freddie. "Let's go. The girls are waiting."

* * *

Shays Apartment

The quartet entered the apartment with Freddie and Sam in a heated argument. Neither one of them paid attention to Spencer's greeting as he worked on his metal tree. Shay had lost track of what they were arguing about at the moment. It had started as soon as Shay and Freddie reached the SUV and Sam started complaining for having to wait for him.

Carly flopped onto the sofa and turned on the television apparently hoping to drown out the noise of the pair's arguing.

The argument continued into the kitchen as Sam started to raid the Shay refrigerator.

Shay took a seat at the end of the table facing towards the living room and dropping his flight jacket on the back as Freddie took the opposite end with Sam literally flopping into the seat in between them facing the counter.

Sam was making a sandwich as she was apparently getting more agitated. Shay was concerned for a moment that Sam would try to stab Freddie with the butter knife.

"Do you ever get tired of that, Samantha?" Shay asked in a curious tone.

"Tired of what?" she asked and turned her attention to him.

"The constant fighting; you always starting something with anybody, least long Freddie here. Fighting one's enemy is one thing, but fighting one's friends without just cause is insanity."

Sam smirked. "That's just the way mama is."

"Have you ever thought about doing something different?"

"Haven't tried, but it would probably require a medication my mom can't afford."

"Drugging you is not the answer."

Shay took a deep breath and thought for a moment. He then began: "Samantha, I remember kids like you from my high school days: always picked on the weak, the powerless, because it gave themselves self-worth and they were always too cowardly to fight those that could fight back and hurt them. Until the end of my junior year, I didn't care."

Sam stared back with her mouth clinched shut.

Shay leaned back in his chair and smiled as he looked off to nowhere particular. "I remember one particular character. His name was Evan. He was a particular nasty fellow."

"Did he ever bother you?" Freddie asked curiously.

"Me?" Shay looked to Freddie shook his head. "No, I was in a different group of kids than his preferred targeting group."

"What kind of group was that?"

Shay cleared his throat. "We were what you would consider the rough crowd. We kept to ourselves. If you left us alone, we left you alone."

Sam asked slowly, "You were a bad boy?"

"Badass, there is a difference, if you would pardon my language." He stopped for a moment as he thought back on something. He grinned to himself. "I think that's why I was such a good fighter pilot in my younger years, but then we all think we're the best when we're in the cockpit."

"There's a difference?" Freddie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, badasses don't have to prove anything to anyone at anytime. You simply are one or you aren't. There is a difference between stealing an absent minded artist's motorcycle than say jumping in front of truck to save someone. Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Benson?"

Freddie could only reply with a nod as his shock was apparent on his face and looked as if he didn't trust himself to say anything.

"Freddie here a badass? That's funny."

"Like I said, Samantha, badasses don't have to prove anything to anybody. They simply are or they aren't. And I found that most 'bad boys' are usually just compensating for something they don't like about themselves."

"Peewee babies," Sam offered.

Shay raised a finger. "That's not it for him."

"It's not?"

"He's not ashamed of that, but if I could get on with my story?"

"Please," Freddie offered.

"Thank you. Evan was pretty pathetic as they came. Always in a foul temper, hated anyone that got in his way and thought he could always get his way. He took a sick pleasure in picking on people. Does any of this sound familiar, Samantha?"

Sam didn't reply but just stared back at him, clenching her jaw shut tighter than she had moments ago, not bothering to swallow the food still in her mouth.

Shay snorted out a breath. "It was nineteen eighty, a month or so left of my junior year: just trying to get by with as little work as possible and Evan was being even more than his usual lousy self, but like I said, I didn't care because he didn't bother me. That day was different. There was this girl named Taylor Dorfman and she was quiet and sweet and if you took a moment to really look at her beyond the dried paint that was always on her cheeks and bandana, quite lovely looking girl that usually kept to herself with her head up in the clouds half the time and stuck in the art classroom the rest of the time. I had passed her in the halls dozens of times over the years without a second thought. You could usually see her carrying rolled up paper, a different colored bandana covering most of her hair everyday and see paintbrushes sticking out of the side of her book bag, so she did stick out a little bit."

Shay didn't realize that he was smiling as he continued, "Evan started picking on her at her locker and I just watched for a moment, not really understanding what I was watching. One moment she tried to ignore him then he grabbed a half finished painting from her. She tried to pull it back and he slapped her." He held up one hand to his right cheek. "The right side of her face was facing the locker and she hit the locker handle at her cheek bone. It cut her pretty bad, but she didn't seem to care about it. When he slapped her the canvas tore in half and all her attention was on the bottom half in her hands. She just started crying looking at it. She didn't care about her bloody cheek. She just cared about that torn scrap of canvas in her hands."

"I know it had to be just a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity watching what had just happened. Something just clicked in my head. I realized in an instant that this was wrong. She wouldn't bother a soul. What had she done to deserve what that creep did to her? Then I realized the answer, like an epiphany."

"What was it?" Freddie asked hesitantly.

"Nothing."

Sam asked with a disbelief look. "Nothing? Your epiphany was nothing?"

Shay chuckled, "No, the answer was nothing. She had done nothing to deserve that, absolutely nothing."

He stared at Sam. "I ask you once again, does any of this sound familiar to you?"

Sam was about to speak, but then clamped her mouth shut.

Shay hadn't noticed that Carly and Spencer had walked up to the other side of the counter that separated the kitchen and living room. Spencer asked in one of the most serious tones Shay had ever heard from his son, "What did you do?"

Shay looked past Freddie to meet his son's eyes. "I was young and brash at seventeen… so I did the only thing I could think of: I walked straight up to him and shouted out his name. When he turned his attention away from her to look at me I punched him in the face as hard as I could."

The Colonel chuckled. "I took his front teeth out with the first punch. Then I proceeded to beat the 'chiz' out of him in front of most of the school right then and there. He got a few good licks in, but when it was done they had to carry him off on a stretcher and I was the one still standing on my own two feet. When Evan finally came back to school he never bothered her again. I don't think he ever bothered anyone else ever again at school."

He then looked to Sam. "There is a lesson for you in there somewhere, Samantha. I just hope maybe you might find it."

Shay then let out a breath. "Well that's enough reminiscing; come on, Freddie. I think we can go ahead and get started on that project we talked about Friday night." Shay got up from his seat and pulled on his flight jacket off the back of the chair. "We'll be back later. Don't wait for us about dinner. Oh, and I'm borrowing the SUV, Spencer."

Freddie quickly got up to follow the Airman heading for the door. As Freddie passed by Carly, he noticed that she looked distracted. He gently turned touched her forearm resting on the counter. "Carly? Are you alright?"

She shook her head and focused on him. "Oh, I'm fine. You go have your fun." They shared a brief smile then he continued on his way to pick up his jacket off the coat rack and followed the Colonel out the door.

Sam looked puzzled looking back and forth between the Shay siblings. "Wait, did he just say Dorfman?"

* * *

**Author's Note: In Gibby terms, I think we can call this a 'shaboom' cliffhanger ;) If any of you aren't warming up to Steven Shay yet, then you people are made of stone :P I think I might have a thing for bad boys - excuse me, badasses now. If you thought this chapter was good, the next one's even better :D Just a side note: I'll most likely PM people back with FF accounts who have questions for OneHorseShay. But if you don't have a FF account, I'll try and post a response from OneHorseShay in an A/N for future chapters should you have a question. Cheers!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter, I know I did :D I apologise if any of you think that OneHorseShay is going too slowly for your liking. He's just the kind of guy who plans his stories out meticulously, so he likes to take his time telling the story. And this story forms part of a 3-part series which I hope to post all of onto my FF account when OneHorseShay finishes the 3rd story (or if he decides to get his own FF account, ha ha). Now onto the story :D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

After about two hours of scourging through various electronic and computer stores for all the various items that Shay felt they needed for his little project with iCarly, the pair were in the food court of the Westwood Village Mall grabbing a meal.

"Taylor was Carly and Spencer's mother," Freddie commented idly as he picked at his fries.

Shay grinned. "What gave it away?"

"Besides Dorfman? Her being an art student… the fact that Carly's middle name is Taylor."

Shay just nodded and sipped his cola before answering, "You really do know everything about my daughter."

Freddie smiled awkwardly and looked down at the table for a moment.

Shay held back a chuckle.

"If you don't mind, sir, how did you and Mrs. Shay—get together? Is that how you two got together?"

Shay took another sip from his soda. Shay narrowed his eyes at Freddie and let out a slow breath. Freddie appeared to be getting uncomfortable with the staring down and sipped on his own smoothie.

"White Knight rushes in to save the Damsel-in-Distress and they live happily ever after? Is that what you're thinking?"

Freddie swallowed nervously. "Your story… could lead to that conclusion."

Shay knew Freddie was just dancing around what he really wanted to say, but was afraid to verbalize it. "I suppose so, but no. That's not how we got together; that's not what motivated it. That's just how we met. To be honest, I may have saved her from a bully, but it was she that saved me."

"You?"

"I was in a pretty bad place at that point in my life. I really didn't care about anything at the time. I had lost my mother the year before and my father and I did not get along at the time. Who am I kidding, we still don't get along."

The look on Freddie's face told him that the young man was not expecting that revelation.

"That in itself is another story for another time. Why don't I continue my story? Maybe it will answer the questions you have, but don't know how to ask… or maybe it won't."

Freddie nodded and motioned a hand for him to continue.

"It was the next afternoon just after school when I found Taylor back in the art room—"

—_sitting on a stool in front of a canvas and paint station easel facing away from him at an angle left of her profile. Steven leaned against the left side of the threshold to the art room watching her paint a portrait of a young woman, but he didn't think it was a self one. He studied the teenage girl as she gracefully guided the paint brush exactly where she wanted it to go. Her dark slightly curly hair flowed behind her back and out of the back of a purple patterned bandana this time tied around her head. She wore a short, sheer silk draped vest jacket with a spring floral pattern over her blue striped blouse and under her artist smock and bell-bottom blue jeans._

_He had to brush some of his long hair out of his face and behind his right ear to take a proper look at her. Maybe the old man was right, he thought for a moment: it was starting to make him look like a girl even if he had just got it long and voluminous. Steven let his hand drop and opened and closed his right fist trying to ease the pain in it. His knuckles were still sore and now had a few scabbed over cuts from knocking out some of Evan's teeth threatening to open up from the flexing and relaxing of his hand. He'd give credit to Evan on one thing: he wasn't a glass jaw fighter._

_She turned her head slightly to look at him standing between what he guessed was the outside world and into hers. She waved him in with her free left hand and with a neutral, maybe slightly sad look on her face._

_He pondered only for momentarily for him to decide to step fully into room. The briefest of smiles formed on her face before turning back to her painting. He walked further inside and around her to stand on her right. He immediately noticed of what he assumed were the two torn pieces of canvas from yesterday were clothes pinned to a neighboring easel. It was a half completed portrait of a young woman that resembled Taylor._

_Taylor paused briefly from her painting and looked up at Steven. She motioned with her left hand to have a seat beside her and pointed to the stool that went with the other easel. He grabbed it and sat it beside her to have a seat. When he sat down beside her, the height difference between them was obvious with her at a few inches over five feet compared to his already approaching six feet. He looked at her as she continued to paint, adding a shade of brown to the drawn eyes. A white square bandage covered high on her right cheek with a circle Band-Aid of a yellow smiley face stuck in the center of the bandage. Steven glanced down to see soft pink lips and noticed her slightly pale complexion, but not overly so. He decided that it gave her a slightly ethereal look that seemed to compliment her earthy appearance rather than contradict it._

_They sat in silence for the few minutes it took her to complete the portrait. He caught her out of the corner of her eye glancing at him every few minutes or so and biting her bottom lip when she did so. Once she was done with her last brush stroke, she put her paint brush down and studied the picture._

_"Your mother," Steven whispered, afraid he would break something, because he knew something was going on, he just didn't know what it was._

_She turned her head to him and nodded in silence. She began to grin, but suddenly winced and her right hand shot up to cover her bandaged cheek. She started blinking as the pain started to make her eyes water._

_Steven gently slid his right hand between hers and her bandaged sleeve and held her hand. She looked to him with a confused look he thought was absolutely adorable._

_"Just squeeze my hand until the pain stops. Don't worry about squeezing too hard," he whispered._

_She squeezed his finger hard for several seconds and he clenched his jaw tight as he quickly realized that she wasn't helping his battered knuckles. A few moments later she relaxed her grip. She pulled down their joined hands and rested them on her right thigh. The artist turned over her hand over so that his was facing up and studied it. Steven watched in silence as the teenager started gently tracing the cuts and scratches over his knuckles with her left index finger._

_Steven noticed her vision shifted to the blood splatters on his right sleeve of his biker jacket. She finally looked up to meet his eyes and her left hand followed, tracing softly the yellow discoloration skin around his left eye. He found it actually soothing on the tender skin._

_Finally she lowered her hand and turned her attention back to the painting. They sat in silence for a few more minutes, before he broke the silence in a hushed tone, "Your mother's very lovely."_

_She squeezed his hand gently this time and he assumed that was a 'thank you'._

_"Do you want me to take you home?" he whispered._

_She smiled softly and nodded her head. They stood up together and Taylor immediately began to put away her art supplies and her smock. She then put the torn pieces of canvas in her book bag. She pulled her bag on her shoulder signaling she was ready to go._

_Steven pointed at the painting. "Will that be safe here overnight?"_

_She looked to the portrait and back to him to nod an affirmative. She then bit her bottom lip again as she looked at him._

_"What?" he asked in a bemused tone._

_She looked down for a moment then back to him with a bashful look. She lifted just off her hills and kissed him on the left cheek. She then immediately looked back down at her feet._

_Steven wasn't expecting that and cleared his throat nervously. "That was… nice."_

_She looked up at him and—"_

"—smiled the best she could towards me. For about a week and a half afterwards I would show up in the afternoon and watch her paint or sculpture something out of clay and when it got late, I would ask her if she was ready for me to take her home. She would just smile and nod. For some reason I would talk and tell her about myself. I wasn't one those that liked to share, but I talked and she would listen as she worked. I knew she was listening because she would smile or nod to me at the appropriate times, sometimes even pout. Taylor didn't say one word to me the entire time, but I figured it out by the third day that she was talking to me through her work. She was telling me everything about herself and how she saw the world. She didn't hold anything back: her joy, her pain, her beauty, her ugliness, her hopes, her fears, her nightmares and her dreams… and it was beautiful and profound."

Shay took a breath and slowly released it. "We started dating after that and about six months later in January the next year we got married, just a few days after her eighteenth birthday." He then chuckled. "She was three months pregnant with Spencer when she walked across the stage at our graduation and she couldn't have been happier."

Shay then looked at Freddie. "I hope that helps answer some of your questions."

"It's something to think about, sir," Freddie whispered.

Shay nodded. "Yeah, that's a lot to take in."

After a few minutes Freddie asked, "Wait, you went back the next day? Didn't get into any trouble? You said you put him the hospital."

"It was nineteen-eighty, not twenty-eleven. There was no such thing as Columbine or zero tolerance policies. If two guys got into a fist fight without weapons, it wasn't treated as the sky falling. Besides, they did not want to mess with 'The Colonel' after he found out what they let happen to his little girl."

"The Colonel?"

Shay chuckled. "Taylor's father, Colonel William "Dorf" Dorfman, was this grizzly old Air Force fighter pilot, but he could be a little eccentric at times. He had flown in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam and he didn't take mess from anybody. Oh, was he ticked off when he showed up at the school. He was ready to put someone in the ground and it looked like at the time starting with the Principal, but then he looked to me as I was in the office. Daddy Dorfman asked me: 'Are you the little punk that hit my little girl?' And he looked like he was about to kill me if I answered yes, but I stood my ground and got right into his face and said: 'No, sir. I'm the one that beat the shit out of the guy who did. If you hurry, you can catch up with the ambulance to tell him how you feel. But if you would, tell him I'm keeping his teeth.' I think he really liked that answer and that I stood up to him. They didn't want to do anything to me after that."

Shay watched the disbelieving look form on Freddie's face. "What? Don't believe me?"

"It's just kind of hard to believe that about a Dorfman."

Shay grinned. "So you've met Barry and his family? I guess during one of their Fresno Raisin Parade trips when they stop by?"

"Yes, they're… ah…"

"Odd?"

"I didn't say that."

"I love my brother-in-law, but Barry _is_odd, Barry has always been odd, but when his big sister died… it really messed him up. It's why they have all those weird eating habits. That reminds me, his birthday is at the end of the month. I might take a road trip to visit them."

Shay saw the nervousness play on Freddie's face. "What is it?"

"May I ask how Mrs. Shay died?"

Shay looked down at his leftover food and thought for a moment and debated with himself. He didn't look up at Freddie, but at the half eaten meal as he spoke, "I think of all people you have the right to know the details. I'm going to have to tell Samantha at some point as well, so you two know what could happen in the future."

Shay saw the instant concern on Freddie's face and the young man straightened up in his seat.

"Taylor and Barry lost their mother to leukemia and ten years last month we lost Taylor the same way, so it is very likely a genetic cause, but Barry's never had any problems. It's the reason he became an Oncologist. He and I have made different choices on how we deal with the possibility of it happening to our children: he makes what we would consider strange choices to reduce the risk of his children developing it. Spencer was old enough to start making his own choices when Taylor died and I have kept my wife's wishes in regards to Carly: let her be happy."

He saw the color drain from Freddie's face.

"I've dogfighted MiGs over the desert of Iraq at gun ranges and fought it out with Al Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan at less than fifty meters, but that," he pointed at Freddie, "the realization you're having right now of what could happen is what I fear the most. I buried her mother; I couldn't bury my son or little girl. You might as well throw me in the hole with them."

He watched as Freddie looked down at the table and just stared.

"Son, don't try to follow that line of thought I know you're starting down of what your life would be without Carlotta. There's no point on bringing unnecessary pain. I told you so you can help her fight if she has to face that possibility one day, not to surrender to despair. Taylor never did."

"I don't know what I would do if I lost Carly," Freddie whispered before he realized what he said.

Shay just nodded sympathetically. "Pray you'll never have to know."

"But on to more pressing business, tell me about what this Adam fellow really said to you."

* * *

**Author's Note: When I first read this chapter, it actually brought tears to my eyes. You'll definitely see a lot more flashbacks of Steven and Taylor's in the future chapters and the rest of the series. As for who OneHorseShay casted as Taylor Dorfman, Ariana Grande got that special role for this story :D I hope you all enjoyed this, I'm off to do 'Snapplelinz' things. Cheers!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Notes: Hey, everyone! I hope you've all been having a great week. I'm not gonna bore you with a long A/N save to say that this story is finally entering my favourite chapters where this story really begins coming into its own as an epic Creddie fic. I hope you like these new chapters :D My humblest apologies about the spoiler for chapter 15 at the end of this new update for those who have already read it. That'll be Document Manager malfunctioning again on my FF account. I've taken that bit out now.  
**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

"It's nothing," Freddie casually deflected.

"Nothing my six o'clock; you looked like you wanted to mess him up as much as I did Evan. So spill it," Shay insisted.

Freddie sighed and began, "Well just before WebiCon, Carly was interested in this guy Adam—"

"I'm aware of that and what happened to him there."

Freddie looked at him in surprise. "How did—"

"Adam became a very popular topic on the various iCarly message boards after WebiCon, especially on a certain one. Some of these ah… 'Creddies', yes, Creddies were quite concerned that he somehow 'stole' Carly from you. There was even some video I watched about what happened. That was not pretty. I think that board banned those members that attacked Adam."

Freddie looked quite embarrassed to Shay, but the Colonel pressed on, "I'm not sure how I feel about the concept of tens of thousands of people feeling they have a stake in who my daughter might be with romantically, but they seem to be a nice and friendly group and on a practical level, if they have a genuine concern about my daughter's well being, that may not be a bad thing. So just tell me what happened."

"I asked Adam why he didn't ask Carly out after everything settled down. I told him she was still interested and he should ask her out, but he was still mad at what the fans did to him. He still believed Sam about me and Carly being deeply in love. I told him he shouldn't believe Sam, but he had made up his mind. He asked me if I was still in love with Carly—"

"What did you say to that?"

Shay watched as Freddie swallowed nervously. "I told him I never denied loving your daughter. I told him everyone already knew that. It had become a joke to people."

Shay pointed right at Freddie, "If you are a man, you will not apologize to anyone for that, son. _Never_. Not even to Carly herself."

The former flyer heard the uncertainty in Freddie's voice as he replied, "Yes, sir."

"And I don't find it a joke."

"Thank you, sir."

Shay slightly bowed his head. "So what happened next?"

"Then he implied that she just strung guys along, and maybe I was in on it with her. I shoved him against the lockers before he could finish speaking."

Shay raised an eyebrow. "So he just more or less called my daughter a slut that bounces from guy to guy and you were ready to pound in his face for it?"

Freddie nodded. "I guess I was."

Shay nearly growled as he turned his attention to anything in the busy food court. "Hopefully he got the message from you not to repeat what he said and that will be the end of it, but—"

"What?"

Shay began gathering up his trash off the table as he answered, "If he doesn't, then he's going to have to be dealt with. I am not letting him run around spreading that nonsense just because he had his feelings hurt by someone other than my daughter and being too stupid to realize it."

"What do you have in mind?"

"My first thought is to have you repeat that story to Samantha, then watch her do what she does best to Adam. However, that would be far too kind to him and I would prefer to make an example of him, if it comes down to that. Maybe you put enough sense to have him drop the matter and we won't have to worry about it."

As the two were exiting the food court, Freddie bumped into one of the mall security guards.

"Sorry—", Freddie began to apologize until he recognized the officer. "Office Carl?" Freddie asked the mall security guard. He had a perturbed look on his face.

Shay looked to Freddie for a moment then Shay pointed at the mall security guard. "You're 'pee on Carl'?"

The mall security guard apparently didn't like the question as he gave Shay a frown and took a few steps towards him. "I'm not amused."

"You're not? I find it damn funny myself."

Shay gave a broad smile and offered his hand, "Oh, I'm Colonel Steven Shay. I'm the one that got you fired from the Seattle Police Department."

Carl's frown deepened.

The Colonel chuckled. "I guess now you wish you did your job and investigated that burglary of my home."

"You need to leave, sir," Carl replied with barely held politeness.

The friendly smile Shay displayed was quickly replaced with a cold stare. "I'm not done with my shopping. You really want me to get you fired from another job?"

Carl ground his teeth and walked off to harass some teenagers hanging outside of another store.

"What was that about?" Freddie asked with a shock expression.

Shay sighed. "Do you remember those two photographers that took pictures of pets?"

"Petographers?"

"Yes, those two losers—I had them arrested and got former 'Officer' Carl fired from the Seattle Police Department."

"You what?"

"Do you have a hearing problem I wasn't told about?"

"No, I mean why did you have them arrested?"

Shay looked at the young man for a moment wondering if he was serious about the question. The perplex look Freddie was giving him answered that question.

He hated to do it, but he replied to Freddie in a tone that suggested he was talking to a small child, "Because they threatened my daughter, broke into my home, destroyed her personal property, assaulted my son, and threatened to do it again if she continued her little pet business. I wasn't going to let them just walk away after doing all of that. What if Carly was the only one home when they broke in? What if Taylor was still alive and home alone at the time? How far would those two have gone to get their point across? I am nowhere near as forgiving as my children. They get all of that from their mother."

"When? How? What did you do?"

"Spencer e-mailed me about it after you gave the cat back to them. I called Spencer up and had him tell me the entire story. I was not happy to say the least. So, I went to my commanding officer and asked for an emergency leave to go home right then and there. That shocked him of course and he asked me what happened. I relayed what Spencer had said in his e-mail and what he told me over the phone and that I had to get home to make sure nothing happened to Carly. Suffice it to say, General O'Neill hit the roof when I told him why I had to go back: because the cops refused to do anything. He's more laid back than Spencer, almost as childlike at times and it was kind of jarring to see him like that in a non-combat situation. He told me he would take care of it and I didn't have to worry about a thing. He made a few phone calls and the next thing that happened is some Special Agents from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI were paying those two a visit. That's what you can do when you have three stars on your shoulder."

"He sent military police after them?"

"Not exactly; the OSI is a federal law enforcement agency. They can arrest civilians. Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb were impacting 'Air Force readiness or good order and discipline' by messing with me through my family. That's how Jack justified having them sent."

"On with my story: those two realized very quickly they were in some, how shall I say: 'deep doggie doodo' and no crooked cops were going to save them, because the Feds got involved. They had committed a number of crimes against my family and me. The Feds didn't take too kindly with someone screwing around with an active duty member of the military's immediate family and the local police not doing anything about it while he was currently deployed overseas. It makes for bad press, you see. So those two losers were looking at a minimum of a year in prison for a violent crime offense if the local DA wanted to prosecute and that wasn't including the terrorist threats made against the three of you or all the other stuff the Feds would creatively come up to charge them with. Those two couldn't deal fast enough. I heard they messed their pants up when the OSI were questioning them and I'm not talking about going number one."

"Wait, so what happened to them?"

"They dealed them down to several years probation, fined them individually about ten thousand dollars and paid me restitution. I guess the only tail they wanted was each others."

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he looked at Shay.

"Never mind," the Colonel whispered.

"What about Carl?"

"Oh, Carl? The police department couldn't throw him overboard fast enough. They didn't want the Feds investigating them too deep about police corruption. They were more than happy to get rid of him if it saved their own skin. Now I guess he works as a mall security guard."

"That's something,"

"Yes it is. So, Mr. Benson, what have you learned about me today?"

"Don't mess with your children?"

"Damn right and I intend for you and me to teach Nevel that same lesson."

* * *

Shays' Apartment

"You two are in trouble," Carly snapped out as soon the two walked inside the apartment and specifically pointing at Freddie. Sam was sitting in one of the stools at the counter computer and Carly was standing beside her and was quite angry.

Freddie looked to Carly in shock as she directed a glare at him.

"For what?" Shay answered for Freddie. "Wait, I'm the father, you're the daughter. I can't be in trouble with you and—" Shay grabbed Freddie by his shoulder, "he was with me the entire time about whatever you are talking about."

Carly cocked her head to the side and turned her glare to her father. "Don't encourage him."

"Encourage him about what?"

"Oh don't act all innocent with me. Adam tweeted what happened at school this afternoon and you didn't mention a word about it in the car. He wrote that I tried to play him and that Freddie and I are together and that Freddie shoved him into some lockers. Now it's all over the iCarly message board and only God knows where else people are talking about it."

Freddie noticed the look of annoyance on the Colonel's face instantly. "Carly," he said slowly. "Take Freddie up to your room and he will explain everything."

"Why would—"

"That was not a request, young lady," he gently prodded.

"Fine," Carly huffed out and walked over to grab Freddie's wrist. She started pulling him to follower her up the stairs.

When the pair was halfway up the stairs, Shay slightly turned his head to look at the two from the corner of his eye. "Do not give her an edited version. You tell her everything."

"Yes, sir."

Carly then pulled on Freddie again and they were out of sight.

Shay turned back to look over Sam's shoulder at the computer. "Samantha, it's time you spoke to your Seddie Warriors. That boy just chose the wrong battlefield to pick a fight."

"My Seddie what?" Sam gave him a perplexed look.

* * *

Carly dragged him by the arm until they were in her room. She shut the door behind her and locked it. The web-hostess turned back and looked at him sharply. "Why did you push him?" she demanded hotly.

Freddie surprised himself by snapping at her, "Because he thought he could call you a slut without actually saying the word and get away with it!"

Carly blinked and her face became drawn for a moment.

Freddie let out a tired breath and ran a hand through his short hair. "I saw Adam just as I was about to leave to meet up with you. I asked him why he hadn't asked you out, but he still believed what Sam told him at WebiCon. I _tried_to set him straight and tell him that he should be taking your word not Sam's when it was obvious to everyone how much fun she has in messing with people. He then got mad at our fans, not just the ones that nearly 'lynched' him. He then said something about you he shouldn't have."

In a quiet tone, Carly asked, "Is that what you meant about fighting for me?"

"He said you were just trying to manipulate him then went on this wild theory that we were just trying to 'play him' for some reason. He tried to make you sound like someone you're not. That you're just playing guys for the fun of it." He then shrugged his shoulders, "I just reacted out of instinct."

Carly then looked down at her feet. "He wrote that you didn't deny being 'deeply in love with me'."

He immediately thought back to what her father had told him earlier and repeated with absolute conviction, "I'm not sorry for loving you and I will not apologize to you or anyone else. I'd do almost anything for you, Carly, but don't ever ask me to do that."

Freddie took a calming breath and continued, "I just—I just wanted to fix what Sam messed up. I know you really liked—like him. I wanted to do the same thing we tried to do with Lewbert and Marta, so you'd be happy and… I think I just made things worst for you. I'm sorry for that, but not defending you."

She turned walked the few steps up to sit on her bed. She rested her elbows on her knees and looked to the floor. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. I shouldn't have done that. You're my best friend and I shouldn't have assumed what he said was entirely true. It's just so embarrassing what he said, but that's no excuse. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," he shook his head and waved her off.

"No it's not, Freddie," she replied and the pain in her voice stabbed at his heart.

Freddie followed her movements up the few steps to her bed and sat beside her just as he did two days ago. He gently took her left hand into his and whispered, "Carly, it's alright and it's going to be alright."

She gave him a pitiful look, but he couldn't help but find it adorable. "Why do you do that?"

"What?" he asked with a confused tone.

"Forgive me so easily?"

Freddie smiled. "Because I love you."

Carly took in a sudden intake of breath then nodded. She then rested her head on his shoulder as before and they continued to hold hands. They sat quietly for a few minutes with only the outside traffic noise sounding in the background.

"Would you have beaten the 'chiz' out of him?"

"If I had to, but I was interrupted."

Freddie just enjoyed the peaceful silence, but he didn't complain when she spoke, "That's the first time that me or Spencer heard that story about how mom and dad met. I'm just trying to imagine my dad that way."

Freddie couldn't help but giggle then laughed.

Carly lifted her head of his shoulder a looked at him. "What?"

"I just realized where you get your bad boy fascination. You get it from your mother."

She bumped his shoulder and smirked at him. "Silly."

When Freddie ceased laughing, he continued, "Your dad told me a story about them when we were out."

"Oh?"

"It was the day after his fight. He found your mom in an art classroom and he watched her paint a picture of your grandmother. Then she kissed him on the cheek. She sounded like a wonderful person."

Carly turned her head to look at her mother's picture sitting on the nightstand. "She was," Carly whispered sadly.

"That's another thing you take after her."

She looked back to him and gave him a small smile.

Freddie grinned. "There's my Carly. I know she'd want you to be happy, not sad because she's not here."

"I know I don't say it enough, Freddie, but thank you."

Freddie slightly bowed his head, but was surprised when he felt a softness on his cheek that he remembered all too well from nearly two years ago. He turned to meet her eyes. Freddie wondered for a brief moment if the look Carly was giving him now was the same one her mother gave her father thirty years ago.

"Thank you, Fredward."

He smiled warmly at her. "Anytime, Carlotta."

* * *

The three different generations looked up to see Freddie and Carly come down the stairs.

Sam asked, "Are you alright, kiddo?"

Shay held back a grin as Carly briefly smiled to Freddie before looking back and answering Sam, "Yeah, I'm alright."

"Good, but Adam's not once we're through with him," Sam hissed.

Carly looked to Freddie in concern for a moment before looking back at Sam and her father.

Shay grinned. "We have been dealing with the situation. I had Samantha here send a personal message to the moderators on the iCarly message board to set the record straight and spread the message on their respective 'shipping' boards. By this time tomorrow, they are going to have every blog, message board, and anything else where iCarly is a subject is flooded with the truth and literally an army to defend it."

"I still want to teach that little nub a lesson," Sam growled out in disgust.

"This is his lesson, Samantha: you have freedom of speech, but not freedom from the responsibility of that speech. If he doesn't learn this one however, you may have to teach him yours."

Shay heard the doubt in Freddie's voice, "Do you think that will work?"

"It's information warfare: one voice versus potentially a million voices. Which one are you going to hear?"

Carly held back a laugh. "I see what you mean."

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this cukey chapter. Colonel Shay means business when anyone tries to mess with his kids, huh? It's a pretty refreshing perspective for stories about Mr. Shay :D A big thank you to everyone who reviewed last week and left some much needed feedback for OneHorseShay, he really appreciates it a lot. Now onto the new chapter! **


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: All I'll say about this new chapter is that I suspect you'll enjoy it a lot :D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Ridgeway High School  
Tuesday, September 2011

It was the end to another boring day as Sam was grabbing her emergency zip-lock bag of bacon from her locker before meeting up with Carly and Fredweird.

"Sam!" she heard someone called out from the stairwell. Sam took a step back just enough to look around to corner to see Adam hop down the stairs two at a time. He took a moment to catch his breath once he reached the row of lockers. Sam couldn't get the sneer off her face as she asked Adam, "What do you want?"

Adam caught his breath then cleared his throat. "I wanted to tell Carly I was sorry. Has she already left?"

"Now you're sorry? You're sorry _after_you tweeted your story. What makes you think you can just do that to Carly? Now I wish the nub had his chance go all nerd rage on you."

He shook his head then replied, "I know; it was stupid what I did."

Sam snorted out dismissively, "You're just sorry because of what my Seddie Warriors are saying about you on-line; looks like mama's army is doing a fine job. Got to remember to give them a shout out on the next iCarly."

Adam set his jaw tight for a moment before snapping, "They're dragging my name through the mud on all those forums and it's gone beyond that."

"Boo-hoo, I guess you know what it feels like to be one of Taylor Swift's exes. You called my friend a slut and if it wasn't for Daddy Shay, I would have taken your manhood off for what you wrote."

Adam swallowed nervously at that statement.

Sam took the few steps to get right in the brunette boy's face. "Yeah that's right. You heard me. Why don't you beat it before I decide to do something to you after all?"

Just about the time he was going to take her advice Sam heard the familiar female voice shout out behind her, "We have to go, Sam."

Sam turned to see Carly stop in her tracks.

"I'm sorry, Carly," Adam spoke as he walked past Sam.

Carly crossed her arms over her chest and refused to meet his eyes.

Sam grabbed Adam by the back of his collar and yanked him back. "Yeah, you're sorry. Get moving."

Adam stumbled back a few feet before regaining his balance.

"Look, Carly, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have written that. Freddie just—"

Sam was shocked at the hostility that came out of her brunette companion's mouth, "Don't you dare blame Freddie for what you did! He didn't make you say anything and he didn't make you write that tweet. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was for you to lie about me? I was always honest with you and you never believed a word out of my mouth. Your own hurt feelings are your own problem, so don't drag me or any of my friends into it."

Carly turned on her heels and walked in the direction from where she approached.

Sam blinked for a moment and swiveled her head back and forth between Carly's retreating form and the shocked expression on Adam's face. It took her another moment to realize that her ride was leaving her and quickly caught up with the brunette.

"Carly?"

"What?" she turned around and snapped at Sam.

"I'm sorry," the dirty blonde whispered.

Carly's brow knotted in confusion. "For what?"

Sam looked down at the ground for a moment and rung her hands for a moment. "For screwing up your chance with Adam at WebiCon and starting this whole mess. I just wanted to get a rise out of the audience. Freddie was right: I didn't think how that would hurt you. I'm sorry."

Sam's downer attitude turned into surprise when the brunette pulled her into a hug. "It's alright, Sam. I forgive you."

Sam pulled back from the hug. "You mean that?"

Carly grinned. "Do you doubt my word now too?"

Sam shook her head. "Never, kiddo, but don't ever tell Freddie I thought he was right, okay?"

"I won't."

* * *

A few minutes later they were climbing into the waiting SUV.

Sam caught Mr. Shay's reflection in the rear view mirror as he asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Carly replied from the passenger seat.

"Adam tried to apologize to Carly," Sam offered.

"He did?" Freddie asked doubtfully.

"Yeah, but it sounded like a bunch of chiz he was giving Carly," Sam commented as she reached into her zip-lock bag for a piece of bacon. "I think he wanted us to call off the fans."

"What is 'chiz' anyway?" Carly asked in a curious tone.

"I think it's a German sausage," Sam replied then took a bite of her bacon.

"Oh, and here I thought it was just a G-rated way of saying shit," Shay replied with a shrug of his shoulders and a chuckled.

Shay turned slightly to look at Carly's shocked face and he rolled his eyes. "Would you rather I had said poop?"

* * *

iCarly Studio  
Tuesday, September 2011

"Oh my god, it really is nerds gone wild," Sam commented as she walked out of the elevator and found Freddie and the Colonel sitting at a table with a laptop and odds and ends of pieces of electronic equipment strung across the table.

Freddie sighed showing his annoyance at Sam. "Very funny, Sam."

"I find it sad that you know what the 'gone wild' part means," Shay commented dryly as he was unscrewing a computer case sitting in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

Freddie asked, "Remember your rope trap to catch Bigfoot?"

"Yeah?"

Shay answered, "Same concept, different prey."

"You're going to try and 'catch' Nevel?"

"Yes. You just need to know how to bait him."

"Wow, Mr. Shay, you are devious."

"Why thank you, Samantha. I try. Do you want to stay?"

"No, wouldn't be any different than science class and I'm not ready for a nap yet. I'm going to raid your fridge."

"Only if you eat enough, okay?"

The blonde grinned, "Yes, sir."

Shay looked to Freddie then down at the motherboard. "Damn," he swore quietly to himself then reached into his inside jacket pocket. He pulled out a glasses case and slid out a pair of bifocal glasses to put on his face.

"You have to learn why things work on a starship," he stated as he began soldering the component to the motherboard.

"What?"

Shay rolled his eyes. "Quoting Star Trek to a Galaxy Wars fan, what was I thinking?"

Freddie laughed at the joke as he continued checking the new software that he was installing in the iCarly servers. "Do you think this is going to work?"

"Yes, but you have to do your part at the start to bait him."

"I will."

* * *

It was about an hour later when Shay took a sip from the bottled water and studied Freddie as he was finishing setting up the last of the new software.

"I need to have a serious conversation with you, son, because I think we've danced around this issue long enough."

"Okay, what issue, sir?" Freddie asked in a concerned tone.

Shay took a calming breath and started, "You're in love with my daughter. You two dated for less than a week then broke up. So my question is: did you break my daughter's heart?" There was no anger or hatred, but a dignified, almost sad tone conveyed in the question.

Freddie rested his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers as he leaned forward and looked down at the floor. "I hope not, never intentionally, sir. Hurting her would be the last thing I ever would want to do to her."

"But she's broken yours a number of times hasn't she?"

Freddie was about to speak, but stopped for a moment. He apparently found his courage and answered, "Yes."

Shay tried to give him the best sympathetic look he could. "I'm sorry. I can only hope it was never done out of malice, but in saying that: she has never been obligated to love you back in that manner."

"I don't believe she has ever done that out of malice or has tried to hurt me. I understand that she's never had to love me like that, I just hope she would one day, sir."

Shay nodded. "Then why don't you fill me in on something then? Could you please just tell me the reason why you two broke up and still remained friends? I know bits and pieces of the story. Carly wouldn't go into details about it. Something about foreign bacon and I don't know what that means. I've checked every slang and pop culture website and I can't find a reference to the meaning. She told me it was mutual the day I got here."

Freddie let out a breath and looked troubled on how he was going to answer that question. "Sam reminded me of a time where she had fallen for someone when he sent her a subscription to the Bacon of the Month Club. It was some foreign bacon that tipped the scales. Me saving Carly was her foreign bacon. She didn't like me like that for me, just for what I did."

Shay lifted his head slightly. "Oh, it was just good old fashion hero-worship?"

Freddie nodded bashfully.

"That's why you asked me if it was me saving Taylor started our relationship?"

"I wanted to know maybe if I made the right decision or the wrong one."

Shay let out a tired breath. "You had the one person you loved the most in this world show you that kind of love back, but you let her go because you didn't think she really loved you back in the romantic sense? You wanted it to be real?"

"Yes, sir."

"You have got to be the stupidest son-of-a-bitch I have ever met or—"

Freddie blinked in surprise at the apparent insult until Colonel Shay finished, "the noblest and I'm leaning towards noblest."

"I… I don't know what to say to that, sir."

"It means you're a good and noble person, Mr. Benson, and if it means anything to you, I'm very proud of you."

"Thank you, sir."

Shay nodded his approval. "So what are you going to do? Wait and see? Hoping she'll just come around and give you a second chance?"

"I told her that once the casts were off and the hero-worship wore off that if she still wanted to be my girlfriend, I'd be really happy."

"But, she tried to date Adam. I think you received your answer."

"I still have hope."

Shay raised an eyebrow. "How long are you going to hold out on that hope? Realistically? This is your senior year. Are you going to follow her to the same college in the hopes that she will fall in love with you there?"

"Wouldn't I consider going to the same college as my friends?"

"Yes, but we're not talking about just a friend. We are talking about the young lady that you are in love with and those are not comparable situations. Would you choose the better school without Carly or the inferior school with Carly?"

Freddie looked down at his feet and floor.

"What about four years of college and she hasn't fallen for you? What then? Are you going to continue to put your life on hold on and miss out on the possibility of meeting someone else?"

"You don't want me to date your daughter?" Shay heard the fear in Freddie's voice.

"Don't dodge my question, son. It shouldn't matter what I think. Once she turns eighteen, then it's completely her choice in who she wants to be with. I don't get a say in it anymore."

"You just dodged my question."

"Maybe, but my answer as I just said makes how I feel either way a mute point. It's her decision to make."

"I haven't thought that far ahead."

"I think you should."

"Carly's not eighteen. What do you have to say now?"

Shay took a deep breath through his nose and looked Freddie square in the eyes. "Are you asking for my blessing in romantically pursuing my daughter?"

Freddie sat up in the chair and met Shay's sight without a hint of fear or nervousness he had when Shay first got back. "Yes, sir, I am," he spoke in a deliberate tone so that he wasn't mistaken in his intentions.

Shay took only a few moments to reply, "You have my blessing, son."

* * *

**Author's Note: My favourite part was the end when Colonel Shay finally confronted Freddie about his feelings for Carly. I hope this clears up Colonel Shay's agenda concerning Freddie. As it turns out, he just wants what's best for Carly at the end of the day, I love that in Gibby terms :D Things are definitely going to get more entertaining from here on out, I hope you're all buckled up for safety. Have a great weekend, cheers!  
**


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you're having a great week so far :D Again, my humblest apologies about the chapter 15 spoiler in last week's updates, Document Manager was malfunctioning again. I hope you'll all like this week's offerings, we're getting a lot closer to my favourite chapter of the lot. Enjoy :D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Shays' Apartment  
Friday, September 2011

_We present another installment of Pathetic Plays. This time: The Idiot Farm Girl who thought the teenage Vampire was a door to door sunscreen salesman. Again._

Sam focused the camera on the bar with Carly as the Idiot Farm girl on the left and Freddie as Fredward Cullen on the right standing behind the bar. Carly was in her typical cowboy hat and red bandana shirt with two ponytails and a goofy grin on her face while Freddie had his hair spiked up, face made up to be pale white with sparkles lightly sprinkled on the make up, a slight bulge under his upper lip from his false vampire teeth along with black attire.

The farm girl giggled, "I told you last time that I didn't want to buy any sunscreen."

Cullen growled and rolled his eyes. "I don't have any sunscreen. I don't sale sunscreen."

"But you're so pale and pasty. How else do you get that way when you travel so much?"

"I'm a vampire; I'm always pale and pasty."

Farm Girl perked up even more and leaned against his shoulder and patted his chest with one hand. "Oh, so you're into baseball?"

Cullen shut his eyes and palmed his forehead. He dropped the hand and looked at the farm girl still grinning as if she was insane. "No, that's an umpire, I'm a vampire." Fredward Cullen blinked for a moment. "Wait, I do like baseball."

"So you're a batboy? So do you sale baseball bats instead?"

"I don't do that either. Look, I just like baseball. I don't sale baseball bats or sunscreen," he replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "This would be a lot easier if I knew what you were thinking," he commented dryly. A thought suddenly occurred to him. "I know? I'll read your mind."

Cullen leaned forward and locked his eyes onto the Idiot Farm Girl. Their faces were just three, maybe four inches apart. Freddie had to act like he was enthralled with her eyes, but he knew he never had to act for that to happen. However, he couldn't let himself fall into them now while the two of them were on camera.

"I can't read your mind," Fredward Cullen finally whispered, not taking his eyes off her and probably a few seconds later than the rehearsals had called for.

"That's because there's nothing there, you dumb ee-jit!" Cowboy Sam yelled out off camera.

Fredward Cullen raised an eyebrow and looked past the camera.

"You're cute and sparkly."

Cullen would've blush if it was possible when he turned back to look at her. He replied nervously, "You're pretty cute yourself."

"Aww, you're sweet," the Idiot Farm Girl replied then giggled. She then kissed him on the cheek.

* * *

Nevel could feel his blood pressure rising as he watched the broadcast from his little computer sanctuary. iCarly was as popular as ever. He thought he was so close to finally getting rid of them after WebiCon after circulating the video from the Q&A. But no, it was those silly stupid little skits like this one, _especially_this one that had brought back the audience and they just added more viewers every week. He had to put a stop to this now before everything he had done would unravel.

He typed away at his keyboard as he searched for weaknesses in the iCarly server. Nevel grinned triumphantly when he had found a security opening. He allowed the smile to turn into a laugh at the incompetence of their technical producer.

He wouldn't take over the system like last time. There would be too many iCarly fans that could retaliate against him now. Even he wasn't foolish enough to believe his system was invulnerable to attack if they went after him. No, he would just disrupt things just enough to frustrate the fans who tried to access the site.

A few more keystrokes and he was inside the server. He couldn't believe the internal security was so lax as he continued to type away and explore the inner workings of iCarly. He had access to everything. It was a treasure trove of information and his excitement kept him exploring. He really could take over the system and shut it down, but this time without anyone being the wiser.

About ten minutes later, one file caught his attention with the name NevelPapperman and immediately clicked it.

Suddenly a picture of the United States Air Force Symbol appeared on his screen. An audio file started playing with a voice he didn't recognize. "Mr. Papperman, I see you've found the cheese in my little Pak-Rat maze. You've been a very naughty boy. While I've had you chase your own tail, I've gathered all the information I need to prove what you attempted to do and have you shut you down for good, you _rank amateur_. Have a nice night."

Then his screen went black and in red text flashed: CONNECTION TERMINATED.

In a fit of rage and frustration, Nevel screamed.

* * *

"Do you want to run to the Groovy Smoothie?" Freddie asked as he came down the stairs after getting the last of the make up and glitters off his face. He massaged his jaw to get the feeling back as the teeth really were a pain.

Carly turned away from the living room computer. "Sure," Carly replied and headed to get her jacket off the coat stand. She turned and looked to Sam. "Are you coming, Sam?"

Sam caught a look from Mr. Shay sitting on the couch. He made a slashing motion with his hand and shook his head with a look on his face that said not to argue with him.

Sam hesitantly replied, "No, I'm good, you two go ahead."

"Okay, see you later," she called out as she and Freddie left the apartment.

* * *

Groovy Smoothie

As Carly took a stool at one of the tall circular table beside the window, Freddie approached the counter. "Hey, T-Bo, can I get one Strawberry Splat and a Blueberry Bang?"

"Sure thing, Cullen," T-Bo replied with a wink and laughed before turning to prepare the order.

"Ha ha," Freddie mocked in return.

T-Bo had a big grin on his face as he handed the two smoothies to the iCarly tech producer. "Thanks, T-Bo," he thanked as he took the two smoothies.

"One Strawberry Splat for you and one Blueberry Bang for me," Freddie stated with a smile as he srt the smoothies on the table and took a stool.

"Thanks." Carly took a quick sip of her smoothie and grinned at the sweetness of it.

The expression which formed on her face brought a brief smile to Freddie. After taking a sip from his own smoothie he started, "That was a great Pathetic Play, but…"

"What?" Carly asked with a raised eyebrow.

Freddie gave her a half smirk. "You went off script with the kiss at the end."

Carly blushed and looked at her smoothie. "Yeah, well… I thought it would sell the scene."

"It sold it for me," Freddie replied with a grin.

Her lips upturn on one side and narrowed her eyes on him. "Cute."

Freddie raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that what got me the kiss in the first place?"

Carly smirked as she replied, "No; that was being sweet."

"I know I've been sweet plenty of times to you and that's never gotten me one of those before."

A slight blush that had just disappeared moments ago reappeared on her cheeks.

"I'm just kidding, Carly," he offered with a soft laugh.

"But you have been sweet on plenty of occasions. Just so you know," she answered nervously.

Freddie watched as Carly occasionally sipped her smoothie as she looked out the window just watching people going about their business and passing cars.

"The night's still young. Do you want to catch a movie?"

Carly turned her head back to Freddie and focused on the brown eyed boy. He didn't allow himself to show how happy he was when instead of a rejection or excuse, the first thing she replied was, "Anything particular in mind?"

"Nope," he replied with a soft smile.

"So you just want to pick something when we get there?" Carly asked, slightly surprised.

"Why not?" Freddie asked with a smirk.

* * *

Carly hung on to Freddie's right arm as they walked down the sidewalk after exiting the movie theater. They had decided on a seeing a comedy and both were exhausted from laughing so much.

"I'm starving," Carly whispered breaking the comfortable silence as they made their way back to the apartment.

"We could swing back to the Groovy Smoothie for a quick bite? My treat?"

"Sure," she replied with a grin.

It was approaching eleven as the two teens reached their mutual hallway to their apartment with Carly this time lacing her fingers with Freddie's right hand. Freddie was quite glad that he was right about his hand being able to hold another's hand.

"This has been a fun night," Freddie commented idly as he regretfully let go of Carly's hand and the two stood in the hallway.

"Yes it has," Carly replied and nodded her head avoiding Freddie's eyes. Freddie wondered briefly where the sudden shyness Carly was displaying had originated. That was the least of his concerns when suddenly Carly gently kissed him on the cheek and whispered when she met his eyes. "Thanks for being sweet."

He smiled to her and replied, "You're welcome."

"Well, goodnight," she bid farewell for the night in a soft tone.

"Night, Carly," he whispered back. He watched her turn and head into her apartment. He inwardly smiled as she briefly looked over her shoulder to give him a warm smile as she stepped through her apartment door then closed it behind her.

He let himself into his apartment with a smile on his face.

* * *

**Author's Note: Tell me, how much did you love the end of this chapter? I pretty much squeed the first time I read about the Creddie date, good times :D For anyone who was confused about Nevel's role in the story so far, I hope this chapter cleared up the mystery. A little trvia for you: OneHorseShay actually wrote his Idiot Girl/Fredward Cullen sketch before iPity The Nevel aired on Nickelodeon, so I'm giving him props for his ingenuity with that scene :D Now onto the next chapter, which is just as brilliant, cheers! **


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: I hope you all liked the last chapter, it's gonna get even more entertaining in this new update. Spoiler alert: another cameo from Nevel in this chapter, so you might just rue the day after all ;D**

**********Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

It was around ten a.m. the next morning when Shay opened the door to see an attractive redhead woman standing on the other side with a teenage boy. He flashed a quick smile and Ms. Papperman bowed her head slightly and blushed.

"Miss Papperman, how do you do? I'm Colonel Steven Shay," Shay spoke smoothly and offered his hand to the woman.

She took his hand and shook it. "I'm doing well, Colonel—"

"Steven will be fine, Miss Papperman," he interrupted with a continued smile.

"Please, Allison," she returned with a smile.

"Allison," he corrected himself with a light bow of his head and released her hand.

The Colonel then turned his attention to Nevel. "Mr. Papperman," he acknowledged the young man with a slight bow of his head.

"Mr. Shay—" Nevel began.

"_Colonel_Shay, young man," Miss Papperman corrected with a stern voice towards her son. "What have I said about showing the proper respect?"

"Yes, mother," Nevel replied with only a hint of irritation from the sound of it to Shay's ears.

"This way, Allison," Shay invited Miss Papperman inside and pointedly ignored Nevel. As soon as they were in the living room, Shay stopped to acknowledge the trio sitting on the couch. "Miss Papperman, I believe you know my daughter and her two friends?"

"Yes, Steven; how are you, Carly?"

"I'm well. ma'am, thank you," Carly replied politely with a smile. Shay noticed the look of annoyance on Nevel's face as Miss Papperman smiled warmly at Carly. Once the redhead concluded her greetings with the trio, Shay suggested with a smile, "Why don't we give them a chance to talk while we speak?"

"Of course, Steven."

Shay bowed his head and directed towards the kitchen with a hand.

As soon as the pair made their way to the kitchen after stepping around Spencer's sculpture, Freddie asked, "So, _Nevel_, how did you like our little surprise in our honey pot?"

Sam continued before Nevel could respond, "I hear Mr. Shay had you running around like a mouse in a maze. He fooled you pretty good didn't he?"

Nevel shut his jaw tight. "You'll pay for this. Mark my words, I will make you all rue this day."

Sam laughed, "Oh no we won't. You've rued your last day. Mr. Shay is not happy with you and he's letting your mom know it."

"My mother won't believe him," Nevel replied with a slight shrill.

Freddie grinned. "Are you so sure?" The tech producer pointed behind Nevel and the boy's eyes followed the direction Freddie was pointing. He watched in horror as his mother and Mr. Shay laughed together and went so far as to pat the Colonel's forearm after a particularly good laugh.

Carly continued, "It looks like your mom is getting along quite well with my dad. I don't think he'll have any problem convincing her of anything."

Nevel's anxiety continued to increase as he watched his mother's happy demeanor turn into one of neutrality, then finally a look of anger that he had always avoided.

After several minutes of tense waiting on Nevel's part, the two adults got up from the kitchen table and approached the teenagers with Miss Papperman taking the lead. "Nevel, Steven has informed me of some of your behavior towards Carly in the last several years that I was not aware of and I am very disappointed with you to say the least. You and I will deal with that when we get home, young man. However, Steven is willing to overlook your actions as youthful indiscretions. Steven has even offered to write you a letter of recommendation when you're ready for college. But, young man, you will not bother Carly or her friends anymore or I'm shutting down your site for good and then I will punish you."

"Mother—"

"I'm not arguing with you over this, Nevel," she replied sternly. "Now, you should thank the Colonel for his generosity and graciousness."

Shay held back a grin as he watched the boy practically squirm under the scrutiny of his mother.

"I'll be a general by that time or getting ready for retirement, either way it should look good at any university. Well, anyone that actually _likes_the US military."

"Let me offer you a little piece of advice, young man," Shay started then leaned down to whisper into Nevel's ear, "I'm offering you a carrot. Take it and run with it or I'll beat you with the stick until I break you." Shay stood up with a big grin and continued in a cheerful tone, "Now you remember that and you'll get far in life."

Shay pushed down the glee he was feeling at watching Nevel at the same time push down the bile that threatened to come up when he replied, "Thank you, sir, I will take your advice to heart."

"Well, Steven, it's been a pleasure for the most part, but we have to go," she explained with a smile then looked at Nevel with a disapproving look. "Pleasure was mine, Allison; have a safe drive home."

"We will, thank you, Steven," she replied with a smile and nod of her head then led Nevel out the door.

Once the door shut, Steven blew out a breath and swore, "_Damn_, I'm good."

"What did you say to her?" Carly asked in surprise.

Shay looked to her daughter and blinked for a second, realizing that they were actually standing there. "Oh, I sweet talked her for a bit, told her the truth about what he has done over the last few years and told her how angry I was as a father at Nevel's actions towards you. She shared my anger and didn't realize what he had done. I also explained to her in no uncertain terms that after he turned eighteen years of age and he tried anything like what he did when he tried to get a kiss from you in exchange for signing the website back to you, I'd kill him."

Sam laughed.

Shay asked with a perplexed look, "What's so funny?"

"You'd kill him."

Shay shook his head, "No, Samantha, I mean I'd end his life."

The trio looked at him in shock that quickly turned to horror when they realized that he was serious.

"Carlotta, I've killed to defend my country. You don't believe I would kill to protect you and Spencer?"

"Ah…" Carly tried to speak.

Shay lowered his eyes to the floor. "Yeah, the dirty work I'd prefer you didn't have to know about and deal with; that's why I don't discuss work. Okay?"

"Okay, sure, dad," Carly whispered softly.

Sam raised her hands up. "No one's judging you here."

Shay grabbed Freddie's shoulder and pulled him close to whisper in his ear, "Now that you're older, do you really think Nevel would have stopped at just a kiss when Carly was trapped with two hired goons to keep her there? I really didn't want to explain that to Carly."

Freddie pulled back and looked to Shay with horror as he realized the possibilities of what could have happened that night if they didn't pull her up with Spencer's fishing pole. Freddie gritted his teeth and if Shay interpreted the look on his face correctly, the young man was half ready to chase Nevel down and do a number of painful things to the little whelp.

"Neither do I," Shay whispered darkly.

Shay cleared his throat and put on a more cheerful disposition. "Well, I don't want to take up anymore of your day." He reached in his jeans pocket and pulled out his wallet to hand a few bills to Carly. "You three have fun today."

"What are you going to do?" Carly asked as she took the money.

"I'm going to help Spencer on his sculpture," he explained, then directed a shout towards Spencer's room. "Time to get up, boy, and get to work."

* * *

It was late that Saturday night when Shay knocked on his daughter's bedroom door.

"Come in!" he heard a shout from the other side.

Shay opened the door and found Carly sitting back on her loveseat playing with her PearPad.

"Hey, cupcake," he greeted with a warm smile.

"Hey, dad, what's up?"

Shay laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I didn't get a chance to ask you last night, but how was your date?"

"Date? What date?" Carly asked with a perplex look as she lowered her PearPad.

"The impromptu date you had with Freddie last night?"

Carly laughed softly. "That wasn't a date. We just went out for a smoothie and then decided to catch a movie."

"Who suggested the movie?"

"Freddie, why?"

"He takes you out for a smoothie, a movie, then buys you a late dinner? Sweetie, that's a date," Shay answered with a big grin.

Carly sat her PearPad down, swung her feet out to sit upright on the sofa and rolled her eyes, "No it's not, dad. He was just being sweet. I'm not interested in dating Freddie."

Shay sighed and shook his head slightly as he looked at the floor. He looked back up to reply, "You're never going to give that boy a chance are you?"

Carly turned back around to face her father and asked with a raised eyebrow, "What?"

Shay shrugged his shoulders. "I mean you will date Griffin because he's cute, Austin because he's funny and cute, tried to date Adam because he was cute, but you won't give the guy that knows you best and loves you the most a chance. Why?"

"I don't like Freddie that way," she stated hesitantly to Shay's ears.

Shay took the seat to Carly's right and rested his elbows on his knees. "But you like these strangers at first sight? That was enough to give them a chance?"

Carly's eyes darted back and forth refusing to look at her father. It looked to Shay that she was gathering her thoughts or more accurately trying to give him a believable response. She finally looked up at him and replied, "I gave him a chance and he dumped me."

"So you lied to me when I first got here? You told me it was a mutual break up. Did you not _want_ to break up with him?"

"He said I didn't like him how he liked me. That I only like him because he saved me."

"Yes, the foreign bacon theory. He explained it to me. He did that because he loves you and he wanted it to be real, not because of some misplaced sense of gratitude."

"I know Freddie 'loves' me."

"No," Shay replied with a shake of his head. "That boy does not 'love' you as you put it. He is absolutely in love with you. I've spent this entire week observing Freddie and I realized very quickly that he looks at you the same way that I looked at your mother at that age. I even noticed at times that you've looked at him the same way your mom looked at me."

"I have not," she replied in a tone that Shay took as clearly defensive.

Shay cocked his head to the side as he looked at his daughter. "My eyes are telling me one thing as my daughter tells me the complete opposite. Which should I believe?"

"Me!"

"Then your eyes are saying something you don't mean."

"Maybe you need to get your eyes checked."

"My eyesight's not good enough to fly fighters anymore, but they see just fine."

Carly stood up and started pacing around her room. After a minute or so she turned back to him as he lay back in the chair. "So you want me to date Freddie?"

"I want you to be happy. I think that you could be happy with him if you gave him a chance, but—but, if you don't love him back that way just a little or don't plan to try again with him then there is only one thing you can do."

"What's that?"

Shay took a deep breath and let it out. He locked eyes with his daughter to make sure there was no doubt in what he was saying to her, "You break his heart and I mean _for good_. He deserves to be able to move on and not waste anymore time on a useless endeavor. Out of everything you two have been through together and you claiming that he's your best friend, you owe him at least that much."

"You can't be serious? How can I hurt him like that?"

"You've broken his heart before without a second thought, how is this any different?"

Carly tried to speak, but she didn't utter a sound. Shay saw in his daughter's eyes that may have been too deep a cut. But as a good fighter pilot, he remembered Oswald Boelcke's rules and number two applied: "Always continue with an attack you have begun".

"Is it true that once Freddie had his casts removed, he would have liked you two to get back together?"

"Yes," she replied hesitantly.

"But what happened?"

"We didn't get back together," Carly replied nervously as she rubbed the side of one of her arms with her other hand.

"I know that," he replied flippantly. "What it looks like to me is that you didn't want to be back together with him, but instead of having the courage and decency to tell him that, you did nothing for a year and a half until some guy named Adam showed up. That is how you let Freddie know quite clearly you didn't want to be his girlfriend. So please don't tell me you aren't willing to hurt him."

"That's not fair. He dated other girls before I got interested in Adam."

"He did? Who and for how long?" he asked, genuinely surprised.

"Sabrina."

Shay furled his eyebrows to think for a moment as he realized that name sounded familiar. "Wait, the same Sabrina that stomped on your Utopian City of the Future?"

"Yes."

Shay then grinned as he asked, "So how long did they date?"

"Well…"

"How long?" Shay pressed.

"They talked online everyday for a week until she stomped on my city."

The Colonel nodded. "Did they date after that?"

"_No_," she admitted hesitantly.

Shay grinned. "So you consider him talking to a girl for a week and then 'dumping' her after she destroys something of _yours_ is a sign of him moving on? That's not moving on, that's just dulling the pain and killing time in a vain hope that you'll come around. Either give him a chance or let him go, but _I will not_allow you to do nothing."

Carly turned away from him and started pacing again. After about a minute or so of watching Carly pacing, Shay received his answer in a low whisper from the brunette, "Okay."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Damn, Colonel Shay sure knows how to pack a punch, don't he? Now that Nevel's been dealt with, it looks like he won't be the only one rueing things in this story ;D As I said before, my favourite chapter in this story is chapter 17, which I'll post next week. If any of you have any queries/feedback for OneHorseShay, please feel free to PM me any time and I'll pass your msg's onto him and try to send you a response back as soon as I can. Have a great weekend, folks. Cheers!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: Hello, all you beautiful people. I hope you've all had a great week. I'm very giddy about releasing these new updates for this story because they're two of my favourite chapters. Hope you enjoy them just as much as I do :D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

To say that Freddie was still on cloud nine from Friday night would be a clichéd description of how he was feeling and he would argue if anyone asked that it wasn't an accurate enough description as he made his way up to Carly's room that Sunday afternoon.

He found the door was slightly ajar and gave a gentle knock as he called out: "Carly?" He waited a few seconds and without hearing a response, gently pushed the door open. He peered in to see Carly sitting at her desk with her head slightly down appearing to him that she was looking at the desktop surface.

"Carly?" Freddie asked hesitantly as he entered Carly's bedroom.

Carly lifted her head up suddenly and turned around in his chair from her desk. She gave him a half-hearted smile. "Hey," she whispered hesitantly.

Freddie's smile dropped further from his face in an instant seeing her face. "What's wrong?"

She got up from her chair and approached Freddie slowly as she was wringing her hands. Carly looked down at the floor refusing to meet his eyes. "We need to talk." She turned and headed up the three steps to her bed.

Freddie walked up the stairs to sit beside her on the bed. Carly directed her gaze at the floor then Freddie gently touched her forearm. "Carly what is it? Are you alright? Is everything okay?" he rattled off quickly as his concern for her grew.

Carly looked up to meet his eyes and gave him a sad smile. "I'm okay, but ah…" she trailed off as she appeared to study his face.

His hand moved down her forearm to lace his fingers with hers. "Carly whatever it is, you can tell me."

She took a deep breath and met his eyes as he gave her a small comforting smile. "When we broke up, you said after the hero worship wore off and you were out of your casts that if I still wanted to be your girlfriend that you'd be really happy about it."

Freddie raised an eyebrow and was clearly confused where she was going. "Yes I did."

"We never talked about that. I just kept silent and didn't say a word… I never gave you an answer… until Adam."

"Carly?"

"Freddie… I should have told you after I got over my hero worship of you and not just remained silent, but… I don't want to be your girlfriend. I don't love you like that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. You're one of my best friends and I love you like that, but I don't know if I can ever love you the way you want me to. I want you to move on. I want you to be happy with someone else like you want me to be happy with someone."

His stomach dropped out from under him as he stared at her. She gave him a sympathetic look and slightly sad appearance to her face he'd admit, but that didn't comfort him at all as he slid his hand out of hers as suddenly the comforting grip felt awkward. Freddie got up and walked the few steps down to the floor. He just looked out in front of him without focusing on anything in particular.

The sadness in her voice was evident in her voice and just stabbed at his heart more, "Freddie?"

He looked over his shoulder to see her standing up with a questioning look on her face.

"I'm sorry Carly. I have to…" he just turned and walked out of the room.

"Freddie? Freddie!" She then started chasing him.

Freddie was out the apartment door just as Carly reached the bottom step. He pulled the door shut behind him and the noise seemed to reverberate through the entire floor louder than expected. She ran to the door, but didn't open it. She just stared at it for a moment.

Shay got up from the couch and turned to his daughter. "What just happened?" Shay asked with a raised eyebrow.

Carly turned sharply. "Freddie just walked away. He said he was sorry and just left."

"I can see that; what did you say?"

"I let him go like you told me to," she snapped at him. "And he just walked away."

Shay gave her a neutral expression. "Don't put this on me. I just told you that you had to make a choice, not which one to make. You decided to pick the one that breaks his heart. Give him the chance to deal with it."

"Deal with it? He probably hates me now!" she shouted, becoming more hysterical.

The Colonel cocked his head to the side. "He's not going to hate you. If he does, it won't be for very long and he'll hate himself afterwards for even considering it. Right now he's in shock and it's going to take time."

"And what if it doesn't? What if he doesn't want anything to do with me?"

Shay replied in a neutral tone, "If that's what he has to do to get through the pain then that's what he has to do."

The web-hostess stiffened in shock for a moment. Shay watched his daughter's eyes and mentally pictured her thought processes in considering what he had just said.

She started blinking and the tears started running down her cheeks.

Shay took a swallow breath and whispered, "I'm sorry, little one."

Carly tightened her jaw and glared at him. "This is your fault! I hate you! I wish you were dead and mom was here." Carly turned and stormed away up the stairs.

Shay blinked for a moment after watching her run up the stairs. He turned his head to look at Spencer who had stopped working on his sculpture to watch the verbal match between his sister and father. The artist wore a look that was a mixture of shock and fear then covered his mouth with a hand.

Shay shrugged his shoulders. "I said the exact same thing to your grandfather at her age." He turned and walked towards the kitchen and shouted back to Spencer, "Are you hungry? I'm starving myself."

Spencer gaped like a fish for a few seconds before asking in obvious disbelief. "She just said she hated you and you're thinking about food right now?"

Shay looked up from the refrigerator and over his shoulders with a raised eyebrow. "Do you really think I'm the first parent in history where a child has told a parent he or she hated said parent? I'm in the mood for night breakfast. Where's the milk? And don't tell me it is in the shower."

"This is serious, dad," Shay heard his son speak in a surprisingly stern voice.

Shay looked up over his shoulder from out of the refrigerator. "I know; we're out of eggs."

"This isn't funny, dad!" Spencer snapped.

Shay sighed then turned around and closed the refrigerator to look back to his son. He shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands up. "What do you want me to do?"

"_Fix this._"

"What's there to fix? She doesn't love him or if she does, then she won't admit it to herself and it becomes a moot point. If she doesn't want to give him a chance, I'm not going to force her to, but I will not let her lead him on either."

"She's not leading him on!"

Shay held up his hands in surrender, "Bad choice of words, I stand corrected." Shay lowered his hands and continued, "But he loves her and if there isn't a chance then he needs to move on for her sake and his own."

"Are we talking about him or are we talking about you?"

Shay stared coldly at his son. "Don't change the subject, son."

"It's been ten years, dad," Spencer stated sympathetically.

"I'm quite well aware of how long it's been, Spencer," Shay gritted out through clenched teeth.

"Maybe you should be more concerned about you being able to move on and let them deal with it in their own way and not interfere?"

"How do I do that, Spencer? How do I move on? We were supposed to grow old together and one day sit on some porch somewhere rocking in rocking chairs with yours and Carly's children on our laps, not watch her slowly waste away at thirty-eight. I can't move on and be happy, but if I can get him to move on and a chance to be happy, then I'm going to do something. I owe him that much after he nearly died to save her."

Shay took a deep breath and ran a hand through his short hair before looking back at his son. "Freddie nearly died for her and almost lost an arm and leg for the trouble. I don't know about you, but I owe that young man for saving her life. Hell, Spencer, even if you don't want to take that into account, he's still the same good kid he was when thirteen and you know that; he doesn't deserve that kind of constant pain. I even gave him my blessing to court her. I was hoping maybe that she might give him that chance, but more importantly I want her to be happy. I don't have to hurt him to make her happy."

Spencer looked down to the floor obviously not able to respond.

Shay shook his head. "Tell me where I'm wrong, Spencer?" Shay lifted up a finger, "How about this: I drag Freddie back so he can torture himself by chasing after her when she's never going to give him a chance?"

"This could mess up their friendship," Spencer pointed out weakly.

"It could, but you're dodging, Spencer. Tell me that I'm wrong, because if you have some other solution, I'd love to hear it so that both of them could be spared the heartache."

Spencer just shook his head. "I just don't want my little sister hurt or Freddie."

Shay patted his hand on Spencer's right shoulder. "Neither do I, son, but it's up to them now."

* * *

**Author's Note: Please tell me this rocked the socks right off of you :D It doesn't matter if you aren't wearing socks, it's just an expression, you get the point :P And let me tell you, this is just the beginning. Keep reading ;D**


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: If you love drama as much as I do, then you're gonna love this chapter :D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Carly was sitting cross-legged in the center of her bed holding her pink bunny costume she wore once for a dare from an iCarly fan in her lap. The soft white tummy of the costume was damp from her tears as she stared at the crimson blood stain in the center of the tummy. She had pushed down the feelings and memory for nearly the last two years, but it was all bubbling up to the surface now.

_"You're going to be alright, Freddie," Carly whispered as she held Freddie's head in her lap. She smoothed his forehead and tried to stop the flow of blood from his forehead as he looked up at her with an unfocused gaze. She didn't know if he had a concussion or not, but the cut on his forehead looked bad to her and the only thing she had to try and stop the blood was the fabric of the bunny costume. His left leg was bent at an odd angle and his right hand curled up in an unnatural way. She just rocked him in her lap as she waited for the ambulance._

"You're going to be okay, Freddie. Everything's going to be alright," she told him in a soft tone. She prayed to whatever deity would listen that she wasn't lying to him or herself.

"Carly?" he whispered, but not apparently not able to focus on the source of the voice.

Carly sniffled then desperately whispered, "I'm right here, Freddie. I'm right here."

He seemed to focus on her and grinned up at her as he whispered, "There you are."

"Here I am," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders and let out a sad giggle as more tears streamed down her face.

Freddie whispered, "Your ears are adorable."

His joke made her giggle more. "Thank you," she replied with a small smile.

"I think I'll rest my eyes for a minute."

"No, don't do that," Carly spoke frantically. She leaned her head down farther to whisper, "Please don't leave me, Freddie."

He smiled to her. "I'm never going to leave you Car-…"

"-ly?"

Carly lifted her head up from the stained costume. In her reminiscing she had been tracing the crimson stain with his fingertips and hadn't even noticed that Sam had entered her bedroom and was now standing at the side of her bed.

"Sam?" she asked hesitantly, trying to blink away the tears and focus on one of her best friends.

Sam sat on the edge of Carly's bed and looked at the costume in her friend's hands. Seeing the bloodstain hit a nerve she didn't expect. She swallowed nervously then looked up to meet Carly's eyes, but the brunette turned her attention back to the bunny suit. In an uncustomary soft tone, Sam spoke, "Hey, kiddo."

Carly wiped a tear away from her cheek. "What'cha doing here?"

"Spencer called me. He said you needed me. What's wrong?"

"Spencer didn't tell you?"

Sam just shook her head.

Carly sniffled. "Freddie left."

Sam looked at her with a confused look. "What do you mean Freddie left?"

It took her a moment to find her words and would have been comical if her eyes weren't puffy and bloodshot. "He walked out and I don't think he's coming back."

"I don't understand, what happened?"

"I… I told him I couldn't love him like a girlfriend and… I wanted him to move on. I wanted him to be happy." Carly had to take a moment to wipe some tears away with the back of her sleeve. "He told me he was sorry and just left. That's it."

She looked back down at the stained bunny suit. "I thought I might lose him from the taco truck because I didn't watch where I was going, but this time I knew exactly where I was going and now I have really lost him." She covered her face with a hand and cried harder into it. Sam pulled her into a hug and let the brunette cry into her shoulder.

"How did this happen?"

"Dad told me I needed to make a choice: either give Freddie a chance or let him go so he could find someone else. So that's what I did. I really hurt him, Sam. I could see it in his eyes."

"It's going to be okay, kiddo," she whispered into her friend's ear. Sam felt Carly's shoulders and back heaved and felt her body wreck with sorrow. "He'll come back, I promise."

"I hope you're right."

* * *

It was about an hour later that Sam stormed down the stairs. Shay saw the rage in her eyes ready to kill anything that got in her way.

Spencer stood up from the stool he was sitting in at his sculpture and asked in a mix of surprise and confusion. "Where are you going?"

"To teach Freddie Benson a lesson," she snapped back.

Shay called out sternly from behind the kitchen counter, "If you do that, I'll never allow you in this apartment again."

Sam turned and looked to Shay in surprise. Shay heard the hint of doubt in Sam's voice, "You're bluffing."

"I don't have to bluff, I have all the power," Shay replied just as coldly. He walked around that counter and took the few steps to stand a few feet from the enraged blonde. "I mean it, Samantha; don't do what you're thinking about doing. Freddie's not the bad guy."

She nearly growled at the former flyer. "Look what he did to Carly! You're just fine that he did that to her?"

"Beating his head in isn't going to solve _anything_."

"You're taking his side over your own daughter's? This is your fault. You really are a lousy father."

"You're damn right I'm a lousy father, but I'm not taking his side over hers; I'm taking both their sides, because the circumstances allow me. If Freddie was my daughter's enemy, I'd put him down like all the others I've gotten to so far, but he is not."

His respond appeared to jar her for a moment. "What are you talking about? What have you done?"

Shay held up a hand and starting counting off with his fingers, "The Petographers, Officer Carl, Nevel, and I still have a few more on my list to get to in due time. I've taught them all what it means to be my daughter's enemy, but Freddie is the last thing to an enemy to Carly and you will not harm him. Be there for my daughter, but do not do something _I will make you regret_ in some misguided sense of avenging my daughter."

Sam narrowed her eyes on the Bird Colonel and he recognized what that meant as he narrowed his gaze on her. "If you charge me, I will put you down and I'll put you down hard."

Sam growled then turned to walk out the door. She pulled the door shut close as hard as she could when she made her way out and rattling some of the knickknacks on the neighboring cabinet.

Spencer walked up beside his father, "Well that didn't go well."

Shay turned his head slightly and looked to Spencer with a raised eyebrow. "You think?"

* * *

The door to Freddie's bedroom nearly flew off its hinges as Sam stormed inside. "You pathetic little nub!"

Freddie rolled his eyes as he sat at his desk, but kept his attention to his computer. "I'm not in the mood, Puckett."

"You're not in the mood? Carly is crying her eyes out—"

"That's her problem, not _mine_," Freddie snapped without looking away from his computer screen.

Sam grabbed the armrests of his chair and jerked him around to face her. She stared right into his eyes and nearly shouted, "Oh yes it is when you're the cause of it. You left her."

Freddie gritted his teeth and grabbed Sam by the collar and the tech producer actually lifted her slightly off her feet to slam her against his closet door. "I'm the cause of it? You're right I left, because it hurts! The only thing I ever did was love her, but you were right, you damn she-demon! You were right! I was just foreign bacon. I was always foreign bacon. It doesn't matter what I do. She will never love me! Are you happy now?"

Sam just blinked in surprise at the outburst.

His eyes bore into hers as he shouted, "Answer me? Are you happy? She finally broke me!"

When Sam didn't respond verbally, Freddie sighed in disgust and let her go so her feet could touch the floor. Freddie turned away and took back his seat in front of his computer.

Freddie watched from the corner of his eye to see Sam looking around almost helplessly to find something to say. She finally whispered, "I'm sorry."

Freddie chuckled darkly for a moment. After catching his breath he answered, "Save your half-assed apology. You've never meant them before; I don't see you starting now and I'm not going to humor you."

"I can be sorry!"

"Maybe at one point, Sam, but not now. You're not even sorry for when you hurt Carly anymore."

"I wouldn't hurt Carly!"

He swiveled the chair so that he was facing the delinquent. "So your stunt at WebiCon with Adam didn't hurt her? She really liked him and you sabotaged it."

Sam took a half step back from the accusation. Carly may have forgiven her, but it still stung that she realized that she could hurt Carly without a second thought. However, she was not going to show Freddie any guilt about that and snapped, "Don't act like you weren't happy when we left him with that mob."

"Maybe I was, but I was not going to sabotage her chance with him."

"Why?"

Freddie palmed his forehead and closed his eyes for a few moments before looking back at the dirty blonde. "Because I love her. Why can't you get that through your thick skull, Puckett? I love her."

Sam shook her head and caught her breath. "This isn't the first time she said she didn't love you."

He stared coldly at Sam. "But it was the first time she said she could not see a time in her life where she could love me. She went into that conversation to break my heart, not just reject me. She wanted me to move on and find someone else." He shook his head and looked back to the computer monitor.

Sam shook her feet and looked to the floor. "I really am sorry, Freddie."

"I said save it. How 'bout you stuff it in the same place you stuff all the ham you eat? Now get out. I'm tired of playing our little game and I'm done with it."

Sam blinked in surprise at his statement. He pointedly ignored her until she turned and walked out of his room.

As soon as the blonde had left, Freddie lowered his head and let his palms catch his forehead. He just growled in frustration.

* * *

**Author's Note: I told you it was going to get more dramatic ;D And Freddie put Sam in her place - double gasp :O I guess when you've got nothing, there's nothing else to lose. Stay tuned for more awesome chapters by OneHorseShay (who is not me, just wanna make that clear) next week. Till then, have a a great weekend. Cheers!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: Hey, folks! I hope you're all having a fabulous week. I'm still recovering from yesterday's public day (Youth Day) ;) A big thank you for everyone who left reviews for last week's updates, you're all awesome. We're entering my favourite arc in the story - enjoy :D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Carly had barely slept that night and the morning sunrise shining through her windows of her bedroom on what would be an annoyingly beautiful Monday morning didn't help her need to get up to go shower and get ready for school. It took Carly everything she had to drag herself out of bed and not just hide back under the covers.

Twenty minutes later she walked downstairs to grab a quick breakfast. Her father sat across the table from her and she found a surge of anger to get her through the time it took to eat breakfast. She just glared at her father. He just returned it with a neutral stare and they ate their breakfast in silence. Her breakfast didn't seem to have any taste to it despite knowing intellectually that it should be delicious.

As she ate she did notice how Spencer nervously looked back and forth between her and their father. She did feel a momentary bit of sympathy for her bother obviously caught between her and their father.

Spencer finished his breakfast first and interrupted the eerie silence. "Ah, Carls, ah I'll be taking you and Sam to school okay?"

"Fine," she replied in a curt tone.

A few minutes later, Carly walked out the door with Spencer without so much as a word to her father.

After a quick stop to pick up Sam, they were on their way to Ridgeway. It was an awkward silence all around as Carly ignored the other two occupants of the vehicle to stare out of her passenger side window. Her anger had left her as soon as she left the apartment and was now replaced with that hollow feeling that she had carried since Sam had left last night. Now even the sights and sounds of the busy streets of Seattle seemed dull to her senses.

She and Sam got out of the SUV and approached the front doors of Ridgeway. Carly's feet seemed to suddenly plant her a dozen feet or so from the front entrance of the school and she looked up to the front of the multi-story school building. The towering center of the school now seemed intimidating rather than comforting and familiar.

She heard a whisper from Sam, "If you want to ditch school today, we can."

Carly half heartedly shook her head, then took the few steps towards the doors.

* * *

Shay's Apartment

Shay answered the incessant knocking on his door to see a very irate Marissa Benson standing on the other side. She walked right past him before he could stop him. He turned around to look at Marissa now standing in the middle of his living room. "You're still not welcome in my home, Marissa. Out!" he pointed out the door.

She turned sharply to him and shouted, "My son is a mess because of you!"

"That's what happens when you get your heart broken and quite frankly, someone has to watch out for your son. You sure as hell aren't doing it," he snapped back.

"How dare you suggest such a thing? I love my son!"

"Yes, you _love_ your son," Shay replied as he held back the bile that threatened to come up from the pit of his stomach. "You love him so much that you find any excuse to humiliate him in front of others, you interfere with his social life any way you can and you treat him and hover over him as if he's a five year old. You wonder why he moved out that one time. If that is what you call love, then you need some professional help, but then again, I've always suspected that."

"This coming from an absentee father who hasn't been involved in his children's lives in years."

"Pot. Kettle. Black. One child, Spencer was a grown man in the eyes of the law and society when I left to support them. You are right that I haven't been here like I should, but I do not humiliate my children; I do not interfere in their social lives; I do not treat my children as if they are babies and can't do for themselves."

"What you're doing isn't interfering?"

"I just pointed out the truth. She decided to act on it. You just don't understand the difference in parenting and interfering. The moment he ended their relationship and she did nothing to stop him from leaving, he's been wasting his time. Someone had to point that out or they would still be doing their silly song and dance routine. Whether she meant to do it or not, she's been leading that boy on with false hope. Do you want him wasting more of his time pursuing someone that _will not love him_? You say you _love_ your son. One would think then that you would want what's best for him."

"You think what he's going through is for the best?"

"For him to move on with his life and be happy? You're damn right I do."

"I knew your girl was always trouble. It should have been her!"

"About what?"

"The taco truck."

Shay narrowed his eyes on the brunette/redhead. "I'm just going to pretend you're just stupid and don't understand the implications of your statement of wishing it was my daughter that nearly died instead of being proud of your son for his selflessness. You're Christian as I understand it. What would your Christ say about your son's actions? Something about that there wasn't any greater love than willing to lay down one's life for one's friends? I know plenty of mothers that would be proud of your son."

"But how many did you send home to them in flag draped coffins?"

Shay blinked at the question. He took a step or two to sit in the black chair in front of the bookcase. He covered his mouth with a hand and rested the elbow on a knee.

"I'm sorry, Steven," Mrs. Benson whispered. "That was wrong." She then sat down on the couch. After a few minutes, Mrs. Benson whispered, "My son's all I have left."

"I buried Taylor; I couldn't bury either one of my children. I'd just go ahead and eat my sidearm if that ever happened."

Mrs. Benson smiled softly. "I would have liked to have known Taylor."

Shay chuckled, "You two would have fought like cats and dogs."

It was Marissa's turn to blink.

"You two would have butted heads constantly. You believe that all your over worrying and preparedness is somehow going to keep him one hundred percent safe while she knew worry was not going to add one day of life to anybody; another thing Christ talked about. You fear the future while she embraced it. She knew there were things that one simply could not control."

Mrs. Benson turned her head away for a moment then stared at him. "I take it you're not much of a believer?"

"I know He's real, just as much as I know the couch you're sitting on is real, but most of my faith in Him died with Taylor. I just have enough to pray to Him for my children and that my boys and girls go home in one piece. That's about it."

"You loved your wife very much."

"Yes I did… I still do."

Marissa shook her head. "My husband was—"

"_is_ a coward and a loser for running out on you even if you are a pain in the butt and a nut."

Marissa narrowed her eyes on Shay.

Shay gave her a half smirk. "I've never lied to you, Marissa. I'm not about to start now and I'm not going to humor you like everyone else seems to want to do. He is a coward and a loser and you are a pain in the butt and a nut. What you do to your son is abuse plain and simple and you dress it up as love and motherly caring."

"We're back to judging each other's parenting skills?"

"Spencer is a better parent than I am, so I win by default, but it doesn't matter if I judge you or you judge me because you and I are going to be judged by Him for what we've done to our children."

Mrs. Benson looked down at her hands in her lap for a minute or so. "What do you think is going to happen between them?"

"I think they're going to work it out one way or the other. We can only hope they do it without suffering any more heartache."

* * *

Ridgeway High School

Carly sat through her second period class staring at her open book. She didn't bother listening to the teacher or even pretend to jot down any notes. Freddie was sitting two desks in front of her and appeared to be doing the same thing as she. The emptiness that she had felt all morning was filling up with pain just seeing him so close and what made it worst was that she had no idea how to bridge the gulf between them.

Ms. Briggs shouted to Carly to pay attention, but she ignored her. She vaguely heard something about detention, but continued to ignore the woman and look at the text in her book that started to bleed together.

When the bell for the end of class sounded, Carly remained seated and watched as Freddie nearly dashed out of the door. Carly swallowed down the hurt and looked back down to her open book. The text seemed to get blurry and blinked a few times, but her vision still didn't clear.

"Carly?" she heard a whisper in her ear. She turned her head to see a very blurry Sam. "It's time to go, kiddo."

Carly closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. She took a moment to wipe under both her eyes before answering, "Right, have to get to class."

Sam would never admit to anyone that she was afraid of anything, but seeing how Carly just went through the day fighting bouts of tuning out the world while barely holding it together. She watched as Carly barely paid attention in class and was not even bothering to hide it; either by looking at her desk or out a window when the opportunity arose. The teachers didn't know what to make of it except for Ms. Briggs and she threatened Carly with detention which the brunette promptly ignored.

During class changes, Carly refused to go to her locker due to what Sam assumed was the off chance of seeing Freddie, but took a few moments to dash into the ladies restroom.

When lunch rolled around, Sam grew more concerned that Carly didn't eat any of her food or speak. When she wasn't keeping an eye on Carly, she glanced around to see Freddie at another lunch table. He was picking at his food as if he was double checking to make sure the meat was dead on his plate. He ignored Shane and Wendy trying to strike up conversations with him.

Sam didn't share her last class with Carly, but assumed it played out just the same and she was feeling an emotion she was not used to: helplessness. That's how the co-webhostess was feeling as she watched the brunette falling apart throughout the day. Of course, Sam was not a girl of inaction.

At the last bell Sam made a mad dash to Freddie's locker and was fortunate to beat him to it. A few seconds later the tech producer approached. Freddie rolled his eyes and shook his head when he saw the blonde. He ignored her as he knelt down to open his locker and retrieve his book bag.

"You need to talk to Carly."

Freddie stood up and slammed his locker shut. He glared at the blonde and replied in a low tone, "No, I don't. She told me what she had to say and I'm taking her advice. I'm moving on."

He turned away and started to go in the opposite direction. "Oh yes you are. Come on, Freddie," Sam demanded in a near growl as she jerked him by the arm. Freddie turned and swung his right fist and connected with the left side of Sam's mouth and cheek. She went down face first and smacked her left cheek hard into the gray polished floor.

She slowly rolled over and covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes were nearly bulging out of their sockets looking at Freddie and from her vantage point, towering over her.

He stared at the blonde and whispered, "No. I don't have to go anywhere with you. Mr. Shay was trying to teach you a lesson, but I guess I learned it." Freddie turned and walked away in his original direction.

Sam pulled herself into a sitting position still holding the side of her face and mouth. She blinked several times as she tried to figure out what just happened. The blonde realized that an audience had formed watching her sit in the hallway, but didn't make a move to stand up.

* * *

**Author's Note: Freddie clockin' Sam - bet you didn't see that coming ;D Lots of fighting in this chapter (physical and verbal), is it wrong that I totally enjoyed this? Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did :D Not onto the next chapter, cheers!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note: More drama and shot-taking up ahead. Spoiler alert: special guest appearance by someone you may know and hopefully like ;D Some strong language in this chapter, you have been warned.  
**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Shay Apartment

Shay was sitting on the couch watching something called Girly Cow on the television screen. Every few seconds he would tilt his head from side to side as he attempted to figure out what he was watching. He finally shook his head and muttered to himself, "It must be one of those shows that you have to be high to understand."

The front door opened and with Carly and Sam walking in with Spencer following behind and shutting the door behind him. The look of anger on Carly's face and the look of detachment from Sam caught his attention and stood up to meet them. Shay saw the bruise that had started to form on the side of Sam's face. He looked to Carly with a raised eyebrow and asked, "What happened?"

"Freddie hit Sam," Carly snapped at him and she was still shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

He looked to his daughter for a moment then to Sam then back to Carly. "Samantha _hits_ Freddie. What's the problem?"

Shay held back an inappropriate laugh at seeing Carly's angry look drop with a blink of her eyes and giving him a dumbfounded look.

Shay grinned. "Oh, you didn't think I knew that?" The grin left his face and gave his daughter a neutral expression. "Do you get this upset when she hits him?"

Before Carly could respond, he turned away from his daughter and walked to the kitchen. He went into the freezer and reached in to pull something out. He walked back to Sam and held out a bag of frozen peas to her, "Here."

Sam looked at him curiously. "I'm not going to eat them frozen."

Shay rolled his eyes. "No," he replied then pressed the frozen vegetables to the side of her face. She nearly jumped at the sudden coldness as Shay placed her left hand on the bag to hold it in place.

"You always struck me as a glass jaw fighter," he commented then headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Carly asked in a curt tone.

Shay shrugged his shoulders after pulling on his flight jacket. "I'm going to do the most logical thing I can think of."

"And what's that?" Carly shouted as Shay was nearly out the door.

"Go talk to Freddie," he said over his shoulder.

* * *

Fire Escape  
Bushwell Plaza

Freddie sat back in his lounge chair and deleted the last of the text messages from Carly without bothering to read them. He sat his phone down and glanced at his laptop screen reading a few random posts from people off an iCarly fan forum. One post caught his eye from someone posting as Snapplelinz:

_That Adam is full of chiz - good thing Mama put him in his place. Good on Freddie for defending Carly that way, he's a good friend. Maybe now Carly will finally see the light _

He shook his head and wondered what they would think if they knew what was going on between him and Carly right now.

"So this is where you're hiding?" a voice called out from the window.

Freddie gave him a snort, signaling his annoyance at the intrusion.

Shay took a seat on the windowsill and propped his back against the side of the building. "Mr. Benson."

"Mr. Shay," Freddie barely acknowledged as he chose to look out onto the horizon.

Shay nodded, realizing it would be the hard way. "You clocked Samantha pretty good. She's nursing her face with a bag of my frozen peas."

"Well… it makes us far from even."

Shay looked out to the skyline and it was a beautiful sight even in the mid-afternoon. He briefly remembered when he and Taylor would sit out on the roof and just marvel at the beauty at night, but he didn't have time to reminisce. "Why do I not doubt that? I'm guessing she wanted you to talk to Carly and you said no, but she didn't like that answer and you were forced to hit her."

Freddie turned in his seat to look at Shay with a raised eyebrow.

"What? Samantha's wanted to hit you because you wouldn't do something for the show when I first got here. She's been to juvie several times for acts of violence. She's lucky she didn't cause an international incident with that Mexican dignitary and I've read enough sanitized military reports to know when someone is redacting a story. The emails my daughter sends me about your 'adventures' read just like sanitized reports when they talk about Samantha and your interaction. I should give you the one where she explains why suddenly you became buddy-buddy with that Fred guy. With those skills I might be able to get her a job in the NSA after college."

Freddie shook his head and closed his eyes. "Sam broke a tennis racket over my head and nearly broke my arm to agree Fred was funny."

"And Carlotta let her do it," Shay stated needlessly not even attempting to hide his disgust. "Has Carly ever said she was sorry?"

"No."

"Why did you forgive her then?"

He turned sharply in his seat to look at Shay. "Because—" he began, but quickly stopped himself.

Shay leapt at his chance, "Because you love her. Sometimes it's easier to forgive because of that, other times it's harder for the same reason."

Freddie rolled his eyes and clenched his jaw. "Why are you here?"

Shay let out a breath and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe you need someone on your side."

Freddie laughed in disgust. "You're on my side? You tell me it's alright to try and date your daughter and two days later she tells me to move on? Wow, you're better than Sam at screwing me over. You told me something about Carly _I _didn't even know, helped out with getting Nevel and acted like you care about me. Was that just your plan all along? To do this to me?"

Shay snorted out dismissively. "If I wanted to fuck you over, young man, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Unlike my son, I don't half-ass my work as you've seen. And Nevel? Ha, Nevel was just bonus points. The whole computer project was just an excuse to get to see how you've changed over the years. That was the point of it, not really getting Nevel."

"Why?"

Shay grinned. "To see if you were still good enough for my daughter."

"What?"

Shay chuckled at the look of surprise on Freddie's face. "I was vetting you, Freddie. I wanted to know if you were still that same good kid you were when you were thirteen."

Freddie looked away from the Colonel. "You didn't do that to any other guy Carly's seen."

"None of those other guys were you. They didn't have a snowball's chance with her in the long term." He pointed at Freddie, "But you do."

Shay let out a tired breath and shook his head then back out to overlook the city. "I'm not just talking about a few weeks or months like the typical teenage couple, but rocking in rocking chairs with your grandchildren on your lap. You know her better than any guy and been with her through thick and thin and you love her so much you were willing to die for her."

He took his eyes of the horizon and back to Freddie, "You didn't think that would catch my attention?"

"Then why did you tell Carly to tell me to move on?"

"I didn't. I told her to make a choice: give you a chance or let you go, because she needed to know what you were doing. I wasn't going to let you pursue her under false pretenses and more importantly you wouldn't do that to her."

Freddie's expression finally changed from one of mild annoyance to confusion. "I don't understand?"

"Your 'date' on Friday, she didn't consider it one, but I know you did."

The hurt on Freddie's face was instant, but Shay pushed on, "She told me she wasn't interested in dating you even after that, so I told her to make a choice. There's no point in you trying and wasting anymore of your life if she's not going to give you a chance."

They sat in silence for a few minutes with just the noise of the streets below piercing the background.

"How did you let go of your wife?" Freddie finally whispered as he looked out to the city.

Shay chuckled sadly and shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't."

Freddie blinked in surprise at that answer. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch on to minutes, Freddie asked, "Then how can you expect me to?"

"I don't know, but what I do know is that I don't want you to go through what I've gone through for the last ten years, son."

"I'm not your son and you're not my father."

"That's right—your biological father is too much of a loser to stick with his marriage and unlike him I'm trying to help you."

Freddie sighed in defeat. "I can't stop loving her."

"I'm not asking you to, she's not either." Shay shook his head slightly, "Carly's a mess without you."

"I'm a mess without her, but it hurts to be around her."

"I know, son. I know."

The pair looked back out across the city.

* * *

Shay's Apartment

About an hour after Shay left, he entered his apartment. Carly and Sam were sitting at the kitchen table and he assumed that Sam had a new bag of peas pressed to her face.

Carly nearly ran to him and asked, "Did you talk to Freddie?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"He's hurting."

"Sam's hurting," Carly pointed at Sam. The blonde gave a wave with her right hand.

"I guess Samantha shouldn't have tried to bully him. Samantha thought she could get him to come back with the use of force. She obviously got a rude awakening, but this isn't the first time she's done something like that."

Carly looked to him with a befuddled look.

"Remember Fred? I watched the achieved shows, Carly. Mr. Benson didn't think he was all that funny. It started a little fan war between you two until suddenly Freddie found him funny. You never gave me a straight answer about Mr. Benson's change of heart. Unlike Spencer, I am not an idiot. I could read between the lines and Freddie confirmed my suspicions in our conversation. You faced a dilemma, which shouldn't have been a dilemma in the first place: Freddie's right to have a differing opinion verses viewers for iCarly. And what did you do? You stood by and let her," Shay pointed to Sam, "beat him into submission for that damn little show." He took a step closer to his daughter and continued, but in a soft whisper, "You chose that show over him; one of your so-called best friends and do you know what he did? He _forgave _you. He never asked for an apology and you never gave him one."

Carly looked like she was on the verge of tears and apparently the only thing stopping her from breaking down was holding on to her butterfly pendant.

Shay sighed and ran a hand down his mouth and chin. "Do you remember what you asked me that night Freddie got you that necklace?" he pointed at her hand holding the purple and silver butterfly.

She nodded hesitantly.

"You asked me what I thought of Freddie and I told you that I'd let you know. Well, here it goes: I think he is a good and honorable young man and you would be very fortunate to have him if that is where your heart would lead. He's a far better man than I was at his age. But right now he is in pain and he is dealing with the fact that the person he is completely in love with will never return those feelings. So just give him that time to deal and if your friendship is as strong as you think it is, it will survive this."

"What if it doesn't?" she asked him in a tone that made her sound the same way she did when she was seven: innocent and terrified.

Shay's heart felt like a knife was twisting in it, but he pushed the pain aside, "I think it will."

"Why?"

He gave his daughter a soft smile and placed a hand on each of her shoulder. "Because he loves you."

She blinked several times and mouthed trying to form words.

"I've never been one of those that believed all you need is love, but it can get you pretty far and I think it will get you two back to a place where you both are happy."

Carly looked down at the floor. "I think I'll head up to my room for a little while."

Shay nodded. "Okay, sweetie."

Carly slowly made her way up the stairs while Shay watched her the whole way up. He lowered his head for a moment before speaking, "Spencer."

"Yeah, dad?"

"Take a walk."

"Ah, where?"

He looked up at his son and snapped sharply, "I don't care."

"Yes, sir. I'm going to go up and see Carly."

"You go do that."

Spencer headed up the stairs while Shay walked back to the kitchen to stand in front of Sam still sitting at the kitchen table holding the bag of peas to her face. He looked at her with a slight detachment. "I warned you, Samantha, not to try and do anything foolish in regards to Freddie."

"You're not my father," Sam replied flippantly with a roll of her eyes as she kept the bag pressed to her face.

Shay yanked the back of peas off of her face and slammed the greens on the table. He looked at Sam with a sharp look and snapped, "You're damn right I'm not your father. I don't have to give a damn about you. I don't have to feed you. I don't have to let you stay here whenever you want because of how shitty Pam is as a mother and is more concerned about where she's going to get her next lay than you. I didn't have to pay to fix your teeth and get you a new one that cost me a few grand; money I didn't spend on my own flesh and blood children. I don't have to do any of that."

Sam looked visibly shocked from Shay's outburst.

Shay continued to stare straight into Sam's eyes. "But I do care what happens to you, because I was you to a certain extent at your age and I am quite well aware where that path you're traveling ends. My daughter loves you as if you were her flesh and blood sister and if Taylor was here, she wouldn't have let you go home the first time you came over here when you were eight and then you would have a mother that actually loved you, because she would have loved you as her own."

Sam blinked and swallowed.

Shay let out a tired sigh and pulled out the end chair from the table and sat in front of Sam. He leaned back in the chair and laced his fingers as he looked at Sam. "What are you going to do, Samantha? You can't keep on this path. You're either gonna wind up in jail or dead. My daughter lost her mother; you want her to lose her sister too?"

"I… I just wanted to fix it."

"Like I said, beating his head in is not a solution and whatever this thing you have with Freddie, you have to stop. No matter how this turns out, it has to stop, because it's wrong and he just threw out whatever rules there were to your so called relationship. You pull anymore of your shit on him and I think he'll kick your ass, because you now know he can put you down in one punch. Look at him; rehab was very good to him and he can take you in a fight."

"I can't."

"Why?"

Sam looked down to the floor. She whispered softly, "I don't want to be alone."

"Ah, so that's what this is about."

Shay got up from his seat and knelt down in front of Sam. He took both of her hands into his hands. The blonde looked up to meet the Colonel's eyes. "You are not alone. You have people that love and care about you. Carly is not going to abandon you just because she's friends with Freddie or even if they got together."

"Melanie abandoned me."

"Carly isn't Melanie, nor is Spencer Melanie and neither is Freddie if you gave him half a chance. You really think he would have gotten rid of Missy for you if he didn't care?"

After a few moments, Sam nodded. "I guess you're right."

Shay grinned. "Occasionally."

* * *

**Author's Note: Lots of insightful moments in this chapter, another one of my favourites :D Did any of you figure out who the guest was in this chapter? Just to be clear once again, though I have many alter-egos, OneHorseShay is not one of them. It was totally his idea to put me in the story - that's my 15 minutes worth of fame in someone else's story ;D If you all liked this week's offerings, leave a review and make the world a better place. Have a great weekend, cheers!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Notes: Hey, everybody! I hope you're all having a great week. Thanks to everybody who reviewed last week's chapter, much obliged to ya. **

**With that said, I'd like to address a prevalent theme in last week's reviews concerning Freddie hitting Sam. People, people. One thing I must stress here is that you need to look at the scene _in context_. Context is key in this scenario. Freddie did not hit Sam out of the blue and without provocation from her. If you read the scene again, Sam approached Freddie first and spoke to him belligerently before attempting to drag him away by the arm to force him to talk to Carly. We can debate this till we're blue in the face about whether Freddie does/does not need to talk to Carly at this point (I personally think he does). But bottom line, Sam tried to force Freddie to do something he didn't want to do and he reacted _defensively_. Was it entirely the right thing to do? Probably not. But, we can't sit and pretend that Sam is a meek and defenceless lamb who wouldn't hurt a fly - she's dragged Freddie off by force numerous times before in the TV show and in a story like this, Freddie was finally ready to call her on it. Anyone care to remember Sam's shenanigans in 'iMeet Fred'? I'm not saying you have to agree with me, I'm just trying to explain the _context _of the scenario so you don't judge OneHorseShay too harshly in this regard. If any of you choose not to continue reading the story, that's entirely up to you. But I think you'll be missing out on a gem of a story that actually dares to go beyond the TV show canon and take risks with the characters and their overall maturity and pulls it off 95% of the time. Again, if any of you want to PM me further to discuss this in private, please feel free to do so.  
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**Ok, I'm done talking now. If last week's offerings didn't float your boat, I've got a feeling these new chapters will :D  
**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Spencer knocked softly on the slightly opened bedroom door. "Carly?"

"Yes?" he heard a soft answer from deep inside the room.

Spencer entered the room quietly to see Carly at her desk looking at the large computer monitor. There were several pictures displayed on the screen: one of Jake, another of Shane, a picture of Carly and Griffin standing side by side Spencer reluctantly took after allowing them to see one another, the picture he took of Carly and Austin before leaving for the Girl's Choice Dance, one of Cort, one of Adam and finally a picture of Freddie in the center of the screen.

"What'cha doing, kiddo?"

"Thinking," she whispered as she continued looking at the monitor.

Spencer smiled as he watched his sister just stare at the monitor. "A Penny Tee for your thoughts?"

Carly grinned and let out a quiet snort. She turned the seat to face her brother. "I was trying to figure out what romantic love is."

Spencer whistled. "Wow, kiddo, going for that 'meaning of life' stuff. Having any luck?"

Carly broke into a smile; one that Spencer was glad to see. "I'm not sure. Maybe."

Spencer grinned and shook his head. He threw out his hands, "Well I'm here to help."

Carly raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "You haven't had a steady girlfriend since high school, remember?"

Spencer laughed and pointed his thumbs to himself. "That's not my fault; the ladies just can't handle your big bro."

Carly actually giggled and brought a bigger smile to Spencer's face. He walked over to the ice cream sandwich loveseat and sat down to face his sister. "Okay, so tell me what you've figured out so far."

Carly glanced at the monitor for a moment then back at her sibling. "I was trying to figure out why I liked all those guys, but…"

"But not Freddie?"

"In 'the good way' as he put it," she answered looking down at her lap.

"You don't have to feel guilty for not liking Freddie that way and I know he would agree."

Carly nodded. "Yes he would. He's that great a guy."

Spencer squinted an eye and asked hesitantly, "Have you come up with any ideas why you liked these guys?"

She took a deep breath and hesitantly answered, "They're cute, some were funny."

Spencer raised an eyebrow. "Ah, and?"

She half-heartedly shrugged her shoulders. "I thought Griffin was a bad boy?"

Spencer swallowed and looked around the room nervously before meeting her eyes again. "Wow Carls, when you put it that way, it kind of makes your standards kinda… shallow?"

She pointed at Spencer. "You dated Candice because she was 'sophisticated'," she replied with air quotes when she said 'sophisticated'.

"Hey, that wasn't the only reason: she was smart and successful and I couldn't know she was boring until I met her and… she wore pantyhose."

Carly tilted her head to the side and looked away for a second. "Okay, you're right." The brunette looked at her brother and continued, "I do have shallow standards, but in my defense of Griffin, I blame mom."

Spencer squinted at her in confusion. "How?"

Carly smiled. "Mom liked the bad boys, she married one."

Spencer broke out in laughter. After catching his breath Spencer answered back, "You could say that." Spencer then nodded as if he was contemplating something. "So you liked these guys because they were cute and some were funny and Griffin was a bad boy. Do you think Freddie's not cute?"

"No, Freddie's cute and handsome, but…"

"But what?"

"Freddie is—was—I don't know—I just saw him as my friend."

"Is that why you didn't give him a chance? Other than after the accident I mean."

"I always saw him as my friend with a puppy dog crush on me; never as someone I could date or be with, so why bother dating?" She shook her head. "If I would have just realized it was more than a crush when we broke up then we could have—" She dropped her head into her hands.

Spencer immediately got up from his seat and hugged her. "Carly, you can't live by what ifs. Dad's already doing that, I don't want to see you do that."

She looked up to Spencer with a curious look. "What do you mean?"

"That's not important right now, what's important is _you_ can't live with what ifs. Okay, so you didn't like Freddie. We already established it's alright that you didn't."

Carly nodded then looked to him with a questioning look. "Spencer?"

"Yeah kiddo?"

"Would it be wrong if I wanted to be with Freddie now?"

"No, but I'd just have to ask whether you did because you really want to give it a try or if it's just a way to try to get him back."

She sighed sadly. "Why does it have to be so complicated?"

"Love usually is," Spencer replied a grin.

"Could I be in love with Freddie and not know it?"

Spencer grinned. "Maybe."

Carly rolled her eyes. "Thanks, you're a big help."

Spencer shrugged his shoulders and grinned even more. "That's what big brothers are for." Spencer pulled away and took his seat back on the ice cream sandwich love seat.

After a moment Carly asked with a half smile, "Why do you look out for me so much?"

"Because I made you a promise."

She raised an eyebrow. "When?"

"When you were a day old."

"What?"

Spencer let out a soft snort and laughed. "I was twelve and you were this little bundle of joy in my arms and you smiled at me. I was just looking at you and dad asked me something. He said, 'Spencer, Cain asked God: Am I my brother's keeper? God didn't answer Cain, but I expect an answer from you.' I didn't really understand at first what he was trying to get at, but as I watched you looking up at me I understood."

"What did you say?"

"I told him yes. I was your keeper. I would always look after you and keep you safe. I've failed at that a couple of times… especially when it came to your room."

Carly shook her head. "The room's fixed. Everything's alright."

"No, it's not and dad made me realize it. I'm going to pay you back all the money I spent on your room; the whole eighty-two thousand."

"You don't have to do that," she waved him off.

Spencer laughed for a moment. "Dad said you would say that, but he's right. I do. I spent your money without asking you. I should have asked you what you wanted to do with the money. I'm not going to take no for an answer Carls."

She nodded her head. "Okay, but how are you going to do that?"

"Well, I can start by stop half-assing my art as dad said."

"Dad said that about your art?" she asked with evident shock.

"Yeah, he said it when he told me that I'm the one that needed to pay you back. It was my responsibility to pay for your room, not yours. I told him I couldn't have afforded it and that's when he said it. If I was taking my art seriously then I would have had the money to fix your room."

"He's wrong, Spencer, your artwork is great."

"Thanks for the compliment, but he thinks I'm not doing as well as I could and I think I agree with him. He said I could be better than mom if I tried; it gives me something to shoot for."

"Wait, does he know you dropped out of law school?"

The artist nodded. "Yes, for the last four years."

"He's known the whole time?" she asked in a shock tone.

"Yep."

Carly's voice carried a slightly nervous tone to Spencer's ears when she asked, "So is he mad?"

"About dropping out? No, he was just mad that I didn't tell him I dropped out and that I wanted to be an artist, not that I dropped out. He never had a problem with me 'following in mom's footsteps'."

"He just wants you to be happy," Carly reasoned.

Spencer shook his head. "No, he wants us both to be happy."

Carly met Spencer's eyes and realized her older brother was right. "Yes he does. I was wrong, it wasn't his fault. None of this was his fault." She then looked down at her feet and started wringing her hands.

"He's not mad at you."

She looked up at him in surprise. "What?"

"Dad's not mad at you for what you said to him."

Carly gave him a perplexed look. "He's not?"

Spencer shook his head. "No. He knows you were just upset, but I think you need to tell him the truth."

Carly nodded her head. "I will."

"Good," he replied with a grin. "So are you going to be okay?"

Carly gave him a half smile. "I think so."

"It's going to work out, Carls."

She got up from her seat and hugged him. "Thanks, Spencer."

Spencer hugged her back. "You're welcome."

* * *

Chapter 21 Part 2

A few minutes later the pair walked down to find Sam sitting on the couch watching TV eating some chicken. Sam finally stopped holding the bag to her face and there was very little if any swelling to her cheek.

Carly walked around the couch and plonked herself down beside the blonde. "Hey."

"Hey," the blonde acknowledge between bites of her chicken.

Carly looked around for a moment then turned to look at Sam. "Where's dad?"

"He said he'd be out for a while; needed to go see someone."

Carly blinked and thought for a moment. "Who?"

"He didn't say, but he said he'd be back by dinner." Sam looked up at Spencer. "Oh, Spencer, he said to tell you that he borrowed your motorcycle and helmet."

Spencer walked over to the other side of the couch at the end towards the apartment door. He shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't know he still rode."

Carly looked up to her brother. "Spencer, could you give us a few minutes?"

"Sure, I'm going for another walk." Spencer went to the coat rack to pull on his jacket. "I'm heading to the Groovy Smoothie. You want anything?"

"I'm good," Carly answered.

"Bring me a Strawberry Splat," Sam called out.

"Kay!" he shouted as he exited the apartment.

Carly smiled at her brother's antics before looking at her friend. "Are you okay, Sam?"

Sam took her last bit from her chicken leg and sat it down on the plate sitting on the table. "I'm good. Mama can take a licking."

Carly took a deep breath and looked to her mischievous friend. "You can't hit Freddie anymore. It needs to stop."

Sam nodded. "I know, Mama got the message." She then chuckled, "That boy may kick my ass the next time." She then rubbed her cheek.

"It's not funny, Sam. It's not right, it was never right."

The smile left the blonde's face. "I know, it's just… I didn't want him to take you away from me."

"What?"

"I just didn't want to lose you. You're the only friend I really have, Carls. I don't know how much worse my life would be without you. Everyone else has abandoned me, even Melanie." Sam shook her head, "I hate her."

Carly looked at Sam in shock from the venom in Sam's voice. She knew the blonde well enough to know she wasn't joking. "How can you say that? She's your sister."

Sam met her friend's eyes. "You're my sister; she and I just have the same parents. She abandoned me; I didn't want you to do that either. Closer you got to him; the further it was from me."

Carly pulled her into a hug and shut her eyes. The brunette whispered into her ear, "I'm not going to abandon you, sister."

Sam found herself holding on to Carly tight, afraid to let go. "That's what your dad said; he said you and Spencer wouldn't abandon me. Even Freddie wouldn't if I gave him a chance."

"He's right."

"Maybe he's not such a lousy father after all," Sam whispered.

Carly pulled back. "What?"

Sam shook her head. "Just something I said to him. I was wrong."

* * *

Seattle Cemetery

Steven Shay knelt down at the marble headstone and placed the bundled flowers in front of it. It was a simple headstone, but unique, just like the woman who's grave it marked. "Hey, sweetie; I know it's been a while since I've talked to you from here," he said indicating the ground. "I know I've been gone too long." He looked up at the sky. "I could really use you help right now, Taylor."

He stood back up and looked back down at the marble headstone and sighed, finally feeling the weight on his shoulders. "I know you've been watching and seen that our daughter is going through her first heartbreak and I don't have a clue on how to help our daughter." Shay shook his head. "I just can't kick the boy's ass. That's what a father's supposed to do, but he's a good guy. He loves our daughter very much and I really don't know if Carlotta loves him like that or not. I think she might a little, but doesn't understand it or I could just be reading her wrong and not have a clue what I'm talking about. I am sure about one thing: I know you'd like him if you were here."

Steven smiled sadly, "If I hadn't said anything, our daughter and Freddie wouldn't be going through this right now, but I didn't want Freddie to go through what I've been through for the last ten years. Spencer thinks it's because I can't let you go and he's right. You told me it was alright to move on, find someone else and be happy, but I don't know how to do that, but I couldn't let Freddie go through that, not after he saved our daughter's life."

He allowed himself a small smile, "Our boy may be an idiot, but he _is not stupid_."

Steven sighed and shook his head. "Spencer's done a fine job with Carly, but I've screwed up so badly with her. Maybe she'll forgive me one day for it." He shrugged a shoulder, "Maybe you'll forgive me one day too."

* * *

**Author's Note: I know I'm totally biased, but this chapter has so much win in it :D Some great insight into the various characters. It looks like Carly's finally doing some good thinking - where will it lead? Next chapter coming right up!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! Call it intuition, but I have a feeling you're all gonna love this new chapter. It's another one of my favourites from this story, enjoy :D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

It was a second night that she couldn't sleep and she didn't know how long she had been spending staring at the ceiling. She finally turned her head to see her digital clock displaying in red: 3:09 AM. She let out a sigh and threw off her covers to sit up. She swung her feet out and planted them on the floor. The brunette webhostess debated on what to do if she couldn't sleep.

She pulled her grey jacket with hood that matched her grey pajama bottoms over her arms and purple shirt. Carly opened her bedroom door and looked at the door just a few feet across the hall. She noticed a light coming from between the door and floor indicating that her father still had a light on in his bedroom.

She decided to cross the short distance and quietly knocked on the door. A moment later, Shay opened up the door to see her standing there nervously.

"What's wrong?" he asked with evident concern in his voice.

"Ah… a lot? Can we talk?"

He smiled at him, "Always, sweetie." He opened the door to let her inside.

She walked over and sat on the edge of his bed and Shay took a seat beside her. They sat there silently for a few minutes and Shay waited with a patient smile. She looked at him and let a tear roll down between her cheek and nose. "I don't hate you and I don't wish you were dead, but I do wish mom was here. I'm sorry."

Shay pulled his daughter tight to his side and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You have nothing to apologize for; I know you don't hate me and I wish she was here too, but I would have traded my life for hers to have her here for you and Spencer."

Shay looked around the room for a moment having an internal debate. "But I do have a question for you."

"What's that?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Shay asked in a somewhat surprised tone, "Why don't you hate me?"

"What?"

"Why don't you hate me? I haven't been here for the last four years. Yes we've had e-mails and video chats and phone calls, but I haven't been here. How can you not hate me for missing so much of your life?"

"I just don't."

Shay shook his head and chuckled, "Wow, at least I succeeded in one thing."

"What's that?"

"My children are better people than me."

It was Carly's turn to smile. She thought for a moment and asked, "Why did you stay away so long? Why so many deployments?"

Shay smiled back, "I can give you explanations, not justifications, not excuses, but only explanations. Do you understand?"

Carly nodded and whispered, "Okay."

"I stayed away as you got older because I didn't want to hate you… I didn't want to blame you."

"Blame me? For what?"

"For your mother's death."

"What?" she whispered.

"Let me start at the beginning. We had always planned to have more than one child, but we had to wait. It was a handful just trying to get through college together and look after Spencer. About the time everything was settled in our lives so that we could have another child, the leukemia surfaced for the first time and we just had to get through that. She beat that, but I think she knew her days were numbered. It would just be a matter of time before it came back and she knew she wouldn't have enough fight left in her to beat it again."

Shay took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "She wanted one more child and she gave me this look; the same look that she gave me when we were seventeen and I knew she was the one. She said in that sweet voice that she would always use when it was _really_ important for me to do what she asked 'Please, for me.' I couldn't say no to her. I knew the stress of a pregnancy could be too much for her, she might come out of remission, but I couldn't say no. I couldn't deny my wife's possibly last request on this earth. So we did what people do to have children and nine months later you came along."

He let out a tired breath. "We thought we had dodged the bullet in those first few years, but—"

"Then she got sick again. I remember her always being tired," Carly offered.

"Then she died and it would have been so easy to blame you and that absolutely terrified me. Up until that point I had seen some stuff in the first Gulf War and Kosovo that still give me nightmares, but none of that held a candle to the horror I felt at the possibility of hating you. To blame my little girl for something she had nothing to do with. I couldn't afford to risk hating you for that, because it was so damn easy. 'If only she had not gotten pregnant.' What an easy thing to place my hatred and pain on. Then nine-eleven happened a month later and allowed me to put some distance between that… One day you growing up and hating me I could accept, but not the other way around. It was an irrational fear, but I was still afraid. I lost her, I couldn't lose you."

He looked to his daughter. "I'm a flawed and stupid man, my little Carlotta, but I do you love you and Spencer."

She gently took his hand resting on his knee and smiled at him. "I forgive you."

He just looked at her dumbfounded. "Just like that?"

She grinned at him. "That's what you do when you love somebody."

Shay chuckled and shook his head. "That has to be your Dorfman half. You sure didn't get it from my side of the family."

"Well mom was pretty special."

"She sure was."

After a few moments of silence, Carly asked, "How did you know it was mom? How do you really know?"

"Do you want an honest answer?"

Carly nodded slightly and wiped a stray tear with the back of her hand.

"You know when you don't have to ask another person 'how do they know?'. I'm not being sarcastic or patronizing you with that answer. You will not need another person's opinion to know if you are truly in love with someone. I'll admit it shocks me that Freddie knew at thirteen, but who am I to question it? It took me a little more time than he did, but I knew at seventeen that your mother was the one and she loved me just as much."

Shay watched for a minute or so as Carly appeared to be thinking. She would look at him when she spoke, "When I was trying to get with Adam, he asked me whether I was really with Freddie. Do you know what I told him?"

Shay shook his head.

"I told him 'Oh god no'." She shook her head in self-disgust. "It was like I was ashamed of even the idea of being with Freddie. And for what? So I could make this guy I didn't really know feel better about his chances so I could date him? I don't even deserve Freddie's love."

"We all mess up, little one. We say things and we do things that hurt the ones we love. Sometimes we really mean them, other times we don't, but it's not about someone 'deserving' to be with someone else or their love."

"What is it about then?"

"It's about choice. It has always been about choice. I chose to be with your mother and she chose to be with me. If it was about whether we deserved each other, then you wouldn't be here."

"Love's a choice?"

Shay shrugged a shoulder. "It can be and not necessarily a conscious decision."

Carly nodded taking in what he was saying.

"So, what do you want?"

Carly took a breath and looked back at him. "I don't know if I'm in love with Freddie. I'm still trying to figure out what that kind of love is, but I know I love Freddie and want him in my life."

"That's a good start, but maybe I can help you out in figuring out what that kind of love is. How do you think Freddie would define love in regards to you and compare that to what all those other guys you wanted to be with would have defined love. Then see if you would have done similar things for Freddie if you were in his place?"

"What?"

"Just try it. Think about it for a minute."

"Okay, I'll give it a try," she hesitantly agreed.

"Do or do not, there is no try."

Carly raised an eyebrow at her father. "You're quoting Galaxy Wars now?"

"Well I didn't think 'Live long and prosper' would work, but don't you dare tell your brother about me quoting Galaxy Wars, he'll never let me live it down."

"Fine, I won't tell him. Now let me do this." She closed her eyes and thought. Shay smiled as he watched her daughter twitch her head back and forth thinking back on all the stuff Freddie did in regards to her. Her facial expression slowly changed to astonishment as she continued to think.

Suddenly her eyes opened. "Oh my God," she whispered.

Shay smiled. "Do you understand now?"

"Not completely, but… I have to talk to Freddie."

Shay grinned. "Then go talk to Freddie."

"But it's three in the morning?"

Shay looked to his clock then back to her. "Meh, more like three-thirty, but so what? Life is short and you can't waste time in matters of the heart. Your mother taught me that."

* * *

Shay knocked on the apartment door loudly. The door opened a few seconds later with a very irate Marissa Benson.

"Steven?" she asked in a surprised tone seeing the Colonel.

Carly slipped between the door frame and Mrs. Benson. She turned to see the brunette make her way into the living room and head to Freddie's room. Mrs. Benson was about to say something when Shay gently grabbed Marissa's wrist. She turned sharply at him. "Marissa, they need to deal with this, one or the other."

Marissa nodded her head.

* * *

Freddie had been tossing and turning most of the night, with only the briefest moments of sleep, but the sudden frantic knock on his door startled him. He quickly threw off the sheet and made his way to his bedroom door. He opened his door expecting his mother, but not Carly in pajama bottoms, a night shirt and grey hooded jacket.

"Carly?"

She looked at him desperately. "Can we please talk?"

The look on her face stabbed at him, but he pushed the pain down. Freddie nodded and against his better judgment, he let her inside his room. She walked to the end of his bed and turned around. She just looked at him nervously for a moment noticing his plaid pajama pants and a navy blue T-shirt that showed off his arms as he closed the door behind him.

"What's there left to say, Carly?"

"I love you."

Freddie snorted dismissively at the statement. "You were so sure you weren't when we talked last."

"I said I wasn't in love with you, not that I didn't love you. I've realized I've been wrong about a lot of things lately and realized what was really important in my life. One thing I realized that was important was I need you."

"I can't be that for you right now, Carly. It—"

"Hurts too much for you," she interrupted. "I know how you're feeling, because I'm feeling that right now and I've been feeling that since you walked out of my room. I need you, Freddie."

His response was nearly a growl as he couldn't keep all his anger from boiling up, "I'll find you another tech producer for the show—"

She shouted at him with everything she had left on the emotion rollercoaster she had been riding for a day and a half. "I don't care about the damn show! To hell with it! To hell with the fans! To hell with the Creddies, the Seddies, to hell with all of them and all of it if it's a choice between you and them! I'll take one of Spencer's sledge hammers to the iCarly servers if I have to prove to you that's not what I mean about needing you! That you're more important to me!"

She sighed and she could feel that she was at the end of her tether. "I don't love you that way as intently as you love me."

Carly shook her head and wiped a tear from her cheek. "That's another thing I realized: you and I defined that kind of love differently. I think that's why I kept misunderstanding you; not realizing how profound it was that you loved me like that. I liked Griffin because he was a bad boy and cute and it was enough for me at the time. I liked Austin because he was cute and funny. I liked Adam because he was cute too and was interested in me. That's how my shallow self defined what love meant: he was cute and funny."

She looked directly into his eyes. "But you, you defined love as always being there for me. Always putting my problems first. Doing anything I asked if it made me happy regardless of how it could hurt you. Throwing yourself in front of a Taco truck to save my life. You broke up with me because you didn't want to take advantage of my stupid, shallow self. Helping to put my room back together with nothing more than a thanks. That's right; I didn't even give one to you. After all that, including Griffin, Austin and Adam, you still loved me and wanted me to be happy with Adam."

She pulled out the butterfly pendent from under the collar of her shirt. "Getting this for me just to see me smile; that's love, I get that now."

Freddie looked down at his feet and shook his head slightly. "Let's just say you get it now, what do you want?"

"What do I want? I want you to give me the chance that I never properly gave you. You knew you were completely and absolutely in love with me in an instant and I realize that now. I'm not there yet and I'll admit to that, but could you give me a chance to catch up with you? I'm still trying to figure it all out and I want to be able to say it and mean it just like you do. Would you give me that chance to fall in love with you?"

That wasn't the answer Freddie was expecting and just blinked at her. He didn't realized how long he must have stared at her, but it must have been too long since he watched her face fall and look down at the floor. She began to shuffle past him, but he gently caught her wrist.

She hesitantly looked at him with tear stained cheeks. He gently took her in a hug and she responded by wrapping her arms around the back of his neck. They just held on to one another as Freddie realized exactly what he wanted, what he needed to say whispering into her ear: "Do you know what I want?"

Carly shook her head best way she could as it rested on his shoulder.

"I want to give you that chance. How could I say no to that request from the girl I love? I love you, Carly Taylor Shay."

He heard her relieved giggle and felt her breath on his neck and couldn't help but smile to himself. She looked up and laughed before giving him a quick peck on the mouth.

They both broke into joyful laughter. After a few brief moments of joy, Carly whispered, "I'm finally tired," followed by a yawn.

"It's almost four in the morning," he whispered back.

She laid her head back on his shoulder, just like she did when they danced after the Girl's Choice Dance. "You make a nice pillow," she whispered in a tired tone.

"Thanks," he replied with a smile.

He just stood there for a minute and realized that Carly was in that state between awake and asleep. He didn't want to wake her after what looked like was the first time she had any peace in the last thirty-six hours. He gently bent down on his left side to hook his arms under her knees and lifted her in a cradling position. He slowly walked to his bed and gently laid her down on his bed. She barely stirred as he pulled the sheet over her.

Freddie turned around and quietly as he could, rolled his computer chair down the step and to the side of his bed. He sat down and got as comfortable as he could to sleep in a chair. He let out a relieved sigh as Carly peacefully fell completely asleep with a small smile on her face.

A few minutes later, Shay peek his head into the room and saw the sleeping arrangement. "You two are both sick and will be missing school today. So is Samantha, got that?"

Freddie smiled and nodded his head, "Thanks, Mr. Shay… for everything."

Shay shrugged his shoulders and smiled. He then turned away and pulled the door shut.

* * *

**Author's Note: Ok, sing it with me now - how much did you love this chapter? So many great moments and Marissa didn't block for Creddie once *fistpound* :D This isn't the last chapter, one more to go for this story. And then I might be posting the sequel for this story, "I Get My (Second) Chance" sometime soon, you never know with me. Thanks for the reviews and love, have a great weekend!  
**


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I hope you're all having a great week. Thanks for the reviews last week, you guys are awesome :D This is the final chapter for this story, hope you'll enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sake, don't sue.**

* * *

Carly felt the warmth of the sun shining on her face as she snuggled her head deeper into the pillow. She took a deep breath and inhaled a familiar scent from the pillow. She finally blinked open her eyes and saw a printed picture of Nug-Nug on the white pillowcase. The brunette realized she wasn't in her bed and sat up quickly.

She looked down to see that she was still in her pajamas and had her grey jacket on her shoulders as she held onto the blue sheet. Carly quickly noticed that Freddie was sitting in a chair beside the bed with his head resting on his shoulder apparently still asleep. She allowed a small smile to form and got up from the bed to stand beside Freddie to give him a soft kiss on the cheek.

He stirred only slightly and a half smiled. Her grin grew bigger until she caught the time from the corner of her eye from a digital clock. "Oh my God, it's nine-forty," she whispered to herself in shock.

"What?" Freddie groggily asked as he woke up.

She gently shook his shoulder, "Wake up Freddie, it's nine-forty."

He blinked his eyes and focused on the brunette. "Nine-forty? It's okay," he replied then stifled a yawn.

"It's okay? I spent the night with you and most of the morning. We're late for school and—"

Freddie rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and he looked with one open at her. "It's alright."

"Don't tell me it's alright."

He gave her a smirk. "Would you rather I told you to calm down?"

She pointed her finger at him and gave him a pouty mixed with annoyed look, "Freddie Benson, never tell a girl to calm down."

He just started laughing and stood up from his seat.

Her look then turned into genuine annoyance. "What's so funny?"

He took a breath and smiled at her as he gently placed a hand on each side of her hips. "You're adorable when you get flushstrated."

She dropped her finger and placed the hand on his chest; she smiled awkwardly and blinked.

He kissed her forehead then whispered, "It's okay, we're taking the day off. Your dad said we were both sick and missing the day. I think we need it, unless you feel up to going to school?"

"Oh," she replied bashfully. She then realized what that meant and grinned. She wrapped her arms around and behind his neck. "And miss out on spending the day with my boyfriend guilt free?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow. "No 'kinda' boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Carly's smile faltered for a moment, "We're past 'kinda', aren't we?"

Freddie smiled and pulled her close to whisper in her ear. "Yes we are."

* * *

Sam and Shay were sitting on the couch with their feet resting on the coffee table and each eating a bowl of cereal while watching one of Spencer's Girly Cow DVDs. After swallowing down some Mini-Wheats, Shay asked, "Okay so let me get this straight, she's a cow and she's on a spaceship and it's a situation comedy?"

"Yeah," Sam mumbled eating her Fiber-Nuts.

Shay shook his head. "I still think you need to be high to understand what the Hell is going on."

"You're just getting old," she replied after another spoonful of cereal.

"Not my fault we had better cartoons in my day than you have now."

Just as Sam was about to reply, the door to the apartment opened with Carly and Freddie entering.

"Morning," Shay as he kept his eyes on the TV. He turned and grinned as she asked, "Sleep well?"

"Yeah," Carly bashfully answered.

"Sam," Freddie acknowledged with a distained tone, but not overly hostile.

Sam nodded her head in acknowledgement.

The Colonel looked at the trio. "That's my cue to leave," Shay stated and got up from the couch. "I'm going to go… somewhere." He then went up stairs taking his bowl of cereal with him.

Sam eyed the two teenagers standing at the end of the coffee table. She sat her bowl of down on the table and stood up from the couch. The blonde met each pair of eyes for a moment before asking, "So, you two together?"

Carly took Freddie's hand and laced her fingers with his and nodded her head.

"So you two deeply in love now?"

Carly answered, "No, but I'll catch up."

Sam rubbed one of her arms up and down. She looked down to the floor. It wasn't the exact answer she expected, but if it was good enough for them… "Good, I'm happy for you, both of you."

She turned her attention to Freddie. "Freddie, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for trying to drag you back and I'm sorry for all the chizz I put you through."

"I thought I told you where you could put your apologies," Freddie stated dryly.

Carly swallowed nervously at the exchange between two people who meant the world to her, but she knew it was up to them to work it out.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, well I'm giving you one anyway and I mean it and… I'm done with our game too."

Freddie gave her a neutral expression nodded. "Okay, but the next time you want a fight, I'll give you one. For the rest, I guess we'll see what the future holds."

Sam smirked. "Deal."

* * *

Epilogue

"Thanks, Gibby! I'm sure your hair will grow back… eventually," Carly called out with a laugh as Gibby walked out of the studio. Carly looked back at the camera and announced, "Before we go, we have a very surprise special guest. He's downstairs helping my brother Spencer get ready to show you my brother's latest sculpture."

"Switched to B Cam, Fredamondo," Sam instructed and pressed the cheer button on her blue remote.

"Switching to B Cam," Freddie announced as he pressed a few buttons on his the tech cart and the three looked to the swinging out monitor.

A hug metal sculptured that once looked more like a tree, but now with mechanical arms and a head very similar to the Bottlebot's, but made out of scrap metal. It was polished and sprayed painted silver. Spencer was standing in front of it with a large remote control usually used for remote controlled airplanes.

"I would like to present to the world my latest sculpture: The Metalbot!"

Shay called out from behind the camera, "I wanted to call it Sockatron, but I got overruled."

Spencer grinned, "The voice you just heard was our dad, Colonel Steven Shay of the United States Air Force. You'll have to pardon him; he's a little camera Shay."

"Funny, Spencer," the Colonel replied dryly.

Spencer laughed. "Now watch this," Spencer stated gleefully as he pressed a few buttons on his remote control. The eyes lit up red and the head turned from side to side and both arms rose and fell independent of one another. Cheering from the studio could be heard from the studio. "That's awesome, Spencer," Carly called out then asked, "Dad, you have to come from behind the camera, please?"

"Fine," Shay relented and walked from behind the camera and into a clear view. He was wearing a grey colored penny tee over his long-sleeved white collarless shirt. In gold writing was printed: CREDDIE SHIPPER.

"Ah, dad, your shirt," Spencer pointed at the writing on his father's shirt.

Shay looked down at his shirt with a quizzical look for a moment before look back up at his son. "What about my shirt? It's an authentic one." Shay looked into the camera. "I got the shirt directly from the good people of the Penny T's Company, the one and only." He turned his shoulder to show his left sleeve and pointed at the rim with the penny on it. "See the official penny on my sleeve? Anything else is an illegal knockoff." He then grinned, "Remember, kids, you can't sue nine year olds, but you sure can sue their parents for copyright infringement. You show'em, Penny."

The camera turned switched back to the studio and focused entirely on Carly. She smiled and clapped her hands, "That's great advice, dad. Words we can all live by." She looked off camera to her left. "What do you think, Sam?"

The camera view pulled back to show Carly and Sam in frame. The blonde was now wearing a yellow Penny T over her original shirt with red print with the message: CREDDIE SHIPPER. With a slightly irritated tone she said, "I find nothing wrong with his shirt. What's wrong with his shirt?"

Carly just smirked and raised an eyebrow at her blonde co-hostess. She looked back to the camera with a smile. "Well, that's it for this episode of iCarly. Rock us out, Freddie."

Freddie grinned from behind the camera and hit a button for the strobe lights to come on and announce Random Dancing. The two girls danced like mad as the random lights strobe across the room then the web feed was cut.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, this is it for the story. Carly and Freddie are together and Sam and Freddie have resolved their differences somewhat (without fists, hee hee). OneHorseShay has written two more stories which follow up from this initial story. But I'm still debating whether I'll put it up - depends on how badly people want to read it ;D Thank you so much to everyone who story alerted, favourited and reviewed this story, you all kept Creddie alive a little longer in the iCarly fandom :D Have a great weekend, cheerio!**


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